LOWELL  — 

AN  INDUSTRIAL  DREAM 
COME  TRUE 

By  H.  C.  MESERVE 

DUKE 

UNIVERSITY 


LIBRARY 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/lowellanindustri01mese 


■ 


9 


i 

ip 


i 


Jranris  C&ffixeiL 

Dit  D Igt7. 

( Courtesy  of  C.  J.  H.  Woodbury ) 

The  only  likeness  extant  of  Francis  C.  Lowell.  This 
silhouette  was  found  back  of  a picture  in  the  office  of  the 
Boston  Manufacturing  Company,  at  Waltham,  Mass- 
achusetts, by  the  late  A.  M.  Goodale,  who  was  long  the 
agent  of  the  company. 


LOWELL — 

AN  INDUSTRIAL  DREAM  COME  TRUE 

By 

H.  C.  MESERVE,  Secretary 
The  National  Association  of 
Cotton  Manufacturers 


Published  by 

The  National  Association  of 
Cotton  Manufacturers 


BOSTON,  MASSACHUSETTS 
1923 


Copyright  1923 


The  National  Association 
Cotton  Manufacturers 


CONTENTS 


6 77l.Ocpli-lhLt 
K\  57S  L 


Page 


References 

11 

Chapter  I 

Early  History  of  Cotton 

13 

Chapter  II 

Cotton  in  America 

20 

Chapter  III 

Cotton  in  the  United  States  .... 

21 

Chapter  IV 

Cotton  Manufacturing  in  New  England 

24 

Chapter  V 

The  Founding  of  the  Waltham  Company 

39 

Chapter  VI 

Lowell 

43 

Chapter  VII 

Character  of  the  Operatives  .... 

51 

v Chapter  VIII 

Description  of  a Lowell  Corporation  at 

V 

this  Period 

60 

Chapter  IX 

The  Lowell  Offering 

65 

Chapter  X 

Abandonment  of  the  Corporation  Board- 

V 

ing  Houses 

68 

Chapter  XI 

Change  in  Character  of  the  Operatives 

70 

Chapter  XII 

Welfare  Work 

74 

Chapter  XIII 

Hours  of  Work 

82 

Chapter  XIV 

A Brief  Account  of  the  Rise  of  Labor 

Unions.  Labor  Disturbances  in 

Lowell 

99 

Chapter  XV 

Wages  and  the  Cost  of  Living  . 

105 

Chapter  XVI 

Conclusion 

119 

Chapter  XVII 

Milestones 

120 

Illustrations 


Francis  C.  Lowell Opposite  3 

Samuel  Slater “ 32 

Nathan  Appleton “ 46 

Patrick  Tracy  Jackson “ 50 

Charts 

A — Full  Time  Earnings  in  Cotton  Industry 109 

B — Wage  Scale  Based  on  Cost  of  Living 110 

C — Comparisons  of  Wages  and  Costs  of  Living  ....  112 


To  the 

Officers  and  Members 

of 

The  National  Association  of 
Cotton  Manufacturers 


who  gave  the  opportunity,  provided  the  theme , 
and  furnished  the  inspiration 
for  this  book 


PREFACE 


THIS  book  has  grown  out  of  a paper  by  the  undersigned 
read  at  the  113th  meeting  of  The  National  Association  of 
Cotton  Manufacturers,  held  at  Atlantic  City,  October  4 
and  5,  1922.  It  was  originally  called  “ The  Development 
of  a Mill  City.” 

The  chapter  on  “ Cotton  ” and  those  leading  up  to  the 
founding  of  Lowell  were  included  in  order  that  the  back- 
ground of  the  industrial  picture  might  be  more  complete. 

Owing  to  the  exacting  demands  of  an  exceedingly  active 
business  life,  there  has  been  no  opportunity  for  cultivating 
the  art  of  fine  writing.  If  there  is  any  merit  in  the  work 
it  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  a plain  unvarnished  tale  of  a 
very  remarkable  industrial  dream  developed  into  a still 
more  remarkable  fact. 

The  textile  industry,  which  stands  first  in  the  indus- 
tries of  the  country  in  the  number  of  those  employed,  has 
retained  all  the  conservatism  which  characterized  its 
founders.  It  is  in  the  belief  that  it  has  also  the  same  broad 
vision  which  out  of  an  idea  built  what  has  proved  to  be  a 
great  city,  that  I have  told  this  story. 

I desire  to  acknowledge  my  great  indebtedness  to  the 
members  of  my  staff  for  their  co-operation,  over  and  above 
their  routine  work,  in  the  many  details  connected  with  this 
book. 


H.  C.  Meserve. 


REFERENCES 


The  Story  of  Textiles 

By  Perry  Walton 
Textile  Texts 

By  Draper  Corporation 
The  Textile  Industries  of  the  United  States 
By  William  R.  Bagnall,  M.  A. 

Memorial  History  of  Boston 
Introduction  and  Early  Progress  of  the 

Cotton  Manufacture  in  the  United  States 
By  Samuel  Batchelder 

A History  of  American  Manufactures  from  1608  to  1860 
By  J.  Leander  Bishop,  A.M.,  M.D. 

Origin  of  Lowell 

By  Nathan  Appleton 
Article  in  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  1830 
By  Henry  Lee 

Article  in  The  Sunday  Standard,  New  Bedford,  August  6,  1922 
By  James  A.  Adams 
Lowell  As  It  Was  and  As  It  Is 

By  Reverend  H.  A.  Miles 
A Hand  Book  of  Lowell 

By  Charles  Cowley 

Oration  at  50th  Anniversary  of  Lowell,  1886 
By  Honorable  F.  T.  Greenhalge 
American  Factories  and  Their  Female  Operatives 
By  Reverend  William  Scoresby,  D.D. 

Letter  from  Samuel  Batchelder  to  Reverend  Doctor  Edson,  1870 
History  of  Lowell 

By  Charles  Cowley 

Character  and  Condition  of  the  Female  Operatives  Employed  in  the  Lowell 
Mills 

By  Dr.  Elisha  Bartlett,  1841 
Loom  and  Spindle  or  Life  Among  the  Early  Mill  Girls 
By  Harriet  H.  Robinson 

Miss  Martineau  in  Letter  to  the  Editor  of  Mind  Amongst  the  Spindles,  1844 
American  Notes 

By  Charles  Dickens 
Life  and  Adventures  of  David  Crockett 
Paper  Read  Before  the  Lowell  Historical  Society,  1875 
History  of  Lowell  and  Its  People 

By  Frederick  W.  Coburn 
Early  Factory  Labor  in  New  England 
By  Harriet  H.  Robinson 
Mind  Amongst  the  Spindles 

A Selection  from  the  Lowell  Offering 
Immigration  and  Its  Effects  Upon  the  United  States 
By  Prescott  F.  Hall,  A.B.,  LL.B. 

The  Cotton  Manufacturing  Industry  of  the  United  States 
By  Melvin  Thomas  Copeland,  Pfi.D. 

The  American  Labor  Movement 
By  Mary  Beard 

Letter  from  Mrs.  Harriet  H.  Robinson,  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Semi-Centennial  of  Lowell,  1876 

11 


The  Strike  in  the  Lowell  Cotton  Mills,  published  in  the  Outlook,  May 
30,  1903 

By  George  Keenan 
The  Record  of  a City 

By  George  Kenncott 
Labor  Laws  and  Their  Enforcement 

Issued  by  the  IF  omen’s  Educational  and  Industrial  Union,  Depart- 
ment of  Research,  1911 

Striking  Against  the  Dead  Hand,  published  in  Collier’s  Weekly,  August 
12,  1922 

Greek  Immigration  to  the  United  States 

By  Henry  Pratt  Fairchild,  1911 
Labor  Laws  of  the  United  States 

22nd  Annual  Report,  1907.  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Labor 
The  Labor  Movement  in  America 

By  Richard  T.  Ely,  PR.D.,  LL.D 

Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  and  Statutes  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massa- 
chusetts 

National  Industrial  Conference  Board  Research.  Report  No.  4 — Hours  of 
Work  as  Related  to  Output  and  Health  of  Workers — Cotton  Man- 
ufacturing 

Research  Report  No.  45 — Wages  and  Hours  in  American  Industry,  1914-1921 
Research  Report  No.  34 — Health  Service  in  Industry 
Sanitary  Consideration  in  Ventilating  and  Humidifying  Cotton  Mills 
By  George  V.  S.  Michaelis 

Welfare  Wors  for  Employees  in  Industrial  Establishments  in  the  United 
States 

From  Bureau  of  Labor  Bulletin,  No.  25C 
Letter  by  a Lowell  Factory  Girl 

Published  in  a Boston  Paper,  1844 

Research  Report  No.  27 — The  Hours  of  Work  Problem  in  Five  Major 
Industries 

Research  Report  No.  13 — Rest  Periods  for  Industrial  Woikers 
History  and  General  Statistics  of  Cotton 
By  R.  B.  Handy 

Anciennes  Relations  des  Indes  et  de  la  Chine 
Harris’  Collection  of  Voyages,  Vol.  I 
Movers,  Phonik.,  Bd.  II,  3 
Forbiger,  Alte.  Geog.,  Bd.  II 
Plin.  Hist.  Nat.,  XIX,  3 
History  of  the  Cotton  Manufacture 
Bf  Baines 

History  of  the  United  States,  Vol.  jl,  p.  179 
By  Bancroft  (George) 

Notes  on  the  State  of  Virginia,  1781 
Bf  Thomas  Jefferson 
U.  S.  Census  of  Manufactures,  1905 

Bulletin  No.  74,  Pace  39 
U.  S.  Census  >f  Manufactures,  1914 
Textiles,  Pace  17 

Brief  of  Argument  by  Arkwright  Club 

1922  Files,  “Forty-Eight  Hour”  Folder 
The  Autobiography  of  T.  Jefferson  Coolidge 

See  Used  Notes,  Clipping  from  Boston  Herald,  August  4,  1922 
Advance  information  sent  from  Bureau  of  Census 
See  Used  Notes 


12 


Chapter  I 

EARLY  HISTORY  OF  COTTON 

THE  use  of  fiber  to  manufacture  cloth  which  emerged 
into  the  art  of  weaving  was  undoubtedly  an  early 
discovery  in  the  history  of  man.  Little  if  anything, 
however,  is  known  of  the  first  use  of  the  cotton  plant.  It 
is  evident  that  fabrics  woven  from  cotton  were  in  use  in 
India  and  China  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  and 
that  the  natives  of  these  countries  were  skillful  in  the  art 
of  weaving  cloth  suitable  for  their  needs. 

As  early  as  800  B.  C.  there  is  record  of  cotton  fiber  being 
used  by  the  Hindoos.  For  instance,  in  the  digest  of  ancient 
laws  by  Mana  it  is  prescribed  that  “the  sacrificial  thread 
of  the  Brahman  must  be  made  of  cotton,  so  as  to  be  put 
over  the  head  in  three  strings.”  Again,  in  these  laws,  it 
states,  “Let  a weaver  who  has  received  ten  palas  of  cotton 
thread  give  it  back  increased  to  eleven  by  the  rice  water 
and  the  like  used  in  weaving.”  The  punishment  for  steal- 
ing cotton  thread  was  given  as  a fine  of  three  times  the 
value  of  the  article  stolen. 

Herodotus  speaks  of  the  trees  which  grew  wild  in  India, 
the  fruit  of  which  was  a “wool”  used  by  the  Indians  in 
making  their  clothes.  This  “tree”  was  no  doubt  the  cotton 
plant  and  the  “fruit”  or  “wool,”  the  cotton  boll.  He  fur- 
ther refers  to  Xerxes’  army  as  being  clothed  in  cotton. 

About  500  B.  C.  cotton  was  brought  to  Europe  from 
India  by  Alexander  the  Great,  and  from  then  on  the  Greeks 
wore  clothing  made  of  it. 

Handy  states  that  from  1500  B.  C.  until  about  a thou- 
sand years  after  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  India 
was  the  center  of  the  cotton  industry.  “The  cotton  cloth 
which  the  Indians  produced  from  a short  fiber  with  primi- 
tive distaffs  and  rude  looms  was  not  equaled  until  the  last 
half  century.  Some  of  their  muslins  possessed  wonderful 
delicacy  of  texture.” 


13 


In  the  records  of  ancient  times  in  India  two  Arabian 
travelers,  writing  of  India,  are  quoted  as  follows, — “In 
this  country  they  make  garments  of  such  extraordinary 
perfection  that  nowhere  else  are  the  like  to  be  seen.  These 
garments  are  for  the  most  part  round,  and  woven  to  that 
degree  of  fineness  that  they  may  be  drawn  through  a ring 
of  moderate  size.” 

A Portuguese  visitor  to  India  soon  after  the  discovery 
of  the  passage  around  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  speaks  of 
“the  greatest  quantities  of  cotton  cloths  admirably  painted, 
also  some  white  and  some  striped,  held  in  highest  estima- 
tion.” In  his  Travels,  Travernier  speaks  of  “calicuts”  so 
fine  that  they  could  hardly  be  felt  in  the  hand,  the  spun 
thread  of  which  was  scarcely  to  be  discerned. 

Before  cotton  was  taken  to  Europe  in  500  B.  C.,  it  was 
introduced  into  China  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  by  the 
Tartars.  However,  although  trade  was  active  between 
India  and  China,  it  was  not  for  several  centuries  that  the 
Chinese  cultivated  cotton  to  any  extent,  nor  did  they  im- 
port much  of  the  manufactured  cloth.  Marco  Polo,  in  his 
travels,  which  included  several  years  spent  in  China,  makes 
no  mention  of  cotton,  but  speaks  of  silk  as  the  usual  dress 
of  the  people. 

Records  also  indicate  that  the  cotton  plant  was  known 
in  Africa,  more  particularly  in  Egypt,  as  well  as  in  south- 
ern Asia.  Handy  states  that  “although  much  has  been 
written  to  show  that  the  ancient  Egyptians  knew  nothing  of 
the  cotton  plant,  using  only  flax  in  weaving,  it  seems  prob- 
able that  this  opinion  is  based  on  too  narrow  an  interpreta- 
tion of  the  terms  used  by  classical  authors  and  the  idea  that 
both  flax  and  cotton  were  never  used  by  the  same  people. 
The  fact  is,  he  states,  ‘both  flax  and  cotton  were  used,  alone 
and  mixed,  by  both  the  Egyptians  and  Indians.’ 

“Egypt  was  one  of  the  most  ancient  as  well  as  most  popu- 
lous empires  of  antiquity,  and  her  inhabitants  were  early 
compelled  to  turn  their  attention  to  other  than  agricultural 
occupations;  so  that  the  various  industries  were  well  known 

14 


from  the  date  of  the  earliest  traditions,  and  among  them 
none  were  more  developed  than  weaving.  While  flax  was 
probably  the  most  common  article  used  by  Egyptian  weav- 
ers in  the  manufacture  of  cloth,  and  linen  was  in  fact  the 
material  of  which  the  clothing  of  the  people  and  the  wrap- 
pings of  their  dead  were  usually  made,  it  appears  quite 
arbitrary  to  state  that  the  Egyptians  knew  nothing  of  cot- 
ton, and  consequently  made  no  use  of  it  in  ancient  times, 
for  the  probability  is  that  it  was  through  the  commercial 
and  industrial  activity  of  this  people  that  cotton  was 
brought  to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.” 

Knowing  that  the  Egyptians  were  adventurous  sailors, 
with  a lively  trade  from  ports  on  the  Red  Sea  with  those 
on  the  western  coast  of  India,  it  goes  almost  without  saying 
that  they  brought  home  many  of  the  fabrics  made  from 
cotton  by  the  Hindoo  weavers.  The  cotton  plant  also  grew 
in  Egypt,  as  Pliny  speaks  of  the  robes  of  Egyptian  priests, 
in  the  era  immediately  following  the  life  of  Christ,  as  being 
beautiful  garments  “woven  from  down  wool  spun  into 
thread,  the  wool  of  which  was  cotton  growing  in  upper 
Egypt  toward  Arabia.” 

There  are  many  indications  of  the  use  of  cotton  on  the 
west  coast  of  Asia,  particularly  in  the  region  of  Palestine. 
Pliny,  also  mentions  that  the  country  about  Jericho  was 
noted  for  its  production  of  cotton.  Another  historian,  For- 
biger,  says  that  Hierapolis,  in  Syria,  was  formerly  known 
as  Magog,  which  word,  according  to  later  translation, 
should  be  spelled  Mabog, — cotton  town.  Still  another  his- 
torian, Movers,  in  a history  of  the  Phoenicians  states  that 
this  people  conducted  trade  with  the  rich  tribes  of  Arabia, 
furnishing  them  with  large  quantities  of  cotton  goods. 

Cotton  and  some  kind  of  cloth  were  probably  introduced 
into  Greece  about  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  for, 
when  invading  India,  he  no  doubt  observed  that  the  people 
used  it  almost  entirely  for  clothing,  etc.,  and  it  is  only 


IS 


natural  to  assume  that  he  brought  away  with  him  many 
articles  made  of  cotton  fiber.  Before  this  time,  or  as  early 
as  1200  B.  C.,  the  Greeks  were  very  skillful  in  the  art  of 
spinning  and  weaving,  although  the  material  used  was  gen- 
erally wool.  Later,  they  used  linen,  and  after  cotton  be- 
came known  to  them  they  were  soon  able  to  produce  a fab- 
ric as  fine  as  that  woven  by  the  Phoenicians  and  Hindoos. 

Cotton  Manufacture  in  Europe 

Cotton  was  introduced  into  Europe,  first  into  Italy  and 
Spain,  from  Egypt  by  Arab  traders,  possibly  early  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  era,  as  there  is  no  record  of  the 
plant  having  been  cultivated  in  these  countries  prior  to  that 
time.  At  no  time,  however,  has  the  cultivation  of  cotton 
nor  the  manufacture  of  its  products  been  engaged  in  to 
any  extent  by  the  natives  of  these  two  countries ; silk,  linen 
and  wool,  are  mentioned  in  the  early  history  of  Italy, 
France,  and  southern  Europe,  but  there  is  no  mention  of 
cotton.  In  his  history  of  cotton  manufacture,  Baines  says: 
“ I have  not  been  able  to  ascertain  at  what  time  cotton  be- 
gan to  be  manufactured  in  Turkey  in  Europe;  but  there 
seems  no  reason  to  think  that  it  was  before  the  conquests  of 
the  Turks  in  Roumania,  in  the  fourteenth  century;  nor 
could  it  have  been  much  after,  as  the  victorious  settlers 
would  naturally  bring  with  them  their  own  arts,  and  the  use 
of  cotton  garments  was  then  common  in  Asia  Minor.  The 
cotton  plant  found  a congenial  soil  and  climate  in  Rouma- 
nia and  Macedonia,  where  it  is  now  (1835)  cultivated  to 
a great  extent,  and  the  spinning  and  weaving  of  the  wool 
forms  one  of  the  most  important  branches  of  industry  in 
that  country.” 

Early  references  to  manufactures  in  Spain  imply  that 
cotton,  as  well  as  linen  and  silk,  was  known  in  the  ninth 
century,  but  not  until  two  or  three  hundred  years  later  was 
it  manufactured  to  any  extent.  Then  Granada  was  famed 


16 


for  its  cotton  manufacture,  a historian  of  that  country  stat- 
ing that  the  coccus  with  which  cotton  stuffs  were  dyed  was 
found  here,  adding  that  “ there  was  a great  abundance  of 
cotton  as  well  for  commerce  as  for  use  in  manufacture,  and 
the  cotton  garments  made  here  are  said  to  be  superior  to 
those  of  Assyria  in  softness,  delicacy,  and  beauty.” 

Similarly,  Barcelona  was  noted  for  its  manufacture  of 
cotton;  its  workers  formed  a guild  in  the  thirteenth  century 
and  two  of  its  streets  have  names  which  preserve  the 
memory  of  the  ancient  locality  of  their  shops. 

Thus  the  manufacture  of  cotton  in  Spain  was  well  estab- 
lished before  it  existed  in  Italy  or  other  European 
countries,  for  it  was  not  until  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century  that  it  was  introduced  into  Venice.  Handy 
states  that  in  1645  the  English  Society  of  Merchants  and 
Adventurers  traded  in  Venetian  fustians  while  Antwerp 
also  exported  to  England,  about  this  time,  cottons  and  cot- 
ton wool,  which  the  merchants  are  said  to  have  procured 
from  Portugal. 

Cotton  Manufacture  in  England 

At  just  what  time  cotton  manufacture  was  first  introduced 
into  England  is  not  definitely  settled.  The  first  accurate 
statement  is  made  by  the  author  of  “ Treasure  of  Traffic,” 
published  in  1641.  However,  as  pointed  out  by  later 
writers,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  industry  was  well 
established  before  that  date,  as  workers  skilled  in  the  art 
had  fled  from  Flanders  in  the  train  of  William  the  Con- 
queror’s army  and  it  is  only  fair  to  assume  that  they  con- 
tinued to  pursue  their  occupations  in  their  new  homes. 

Mention  is  made  of  it  in  records  covering  the  thirteenth 
century  (1212)  and  again  early  in  the  fifteenth  century 
there  is  reference  to  the  importation  of  cotton  to  the 
country. 

There  is  little  to  indicate,  however,  that  the  industry  ex- 
perienced any  appreciable  growth  for  many  years.  For 


17 


one  thing,  the  crudeness  of  the  machinery  for  spinning 
made  it  impossible  to  produce  any  fine  yams.  In  fact,  both 
spinning  and  weaving,  which  were  done  by  individuals  in 
their  homes,  were  performed  by  the  use  of  implements 
similar  to  those  used  two  thousand  years  before.  To  state 
that  the  distaff  was  still  in  use  is  to  give  some  idea  of  the 
primitive  nature  of  the  art  at  this  period,  while  the  loom 
was  little  better  than  the  one  used  in  India  hundreds  of 
years  earlier. 

Another  hindrance  to  the  growth  of  the  industry  was  the 
distance  of  the  finished  goods  from  the  market.  Baines 
makes  note  of  the  fact  that  it  was  not  until  1760  that  Man- 
chester merchants  began  to  furnish  the  weavers  in  the 
neighboring  villages  with  raw  cotton  and  to  pay  a fixed 
price  for  the  perfected  web,  in  this  way  relieving  the 
weavers  of  the  necessity  of  providing  themselves  with  mate- 
rial and  seeking  a market  for  their  cloth,  and  also  enabling 
them  to  work  with  greater  regularity. 

Up  to  this  time  the  weavers  had  barely  supplied  the  home 
demand,  but  after  the  impetus  the  industry  received  from 
the  new  arrangement,  England  began  to  export  cotton 
goods.  Immediately,  the  foreign  demand  increased,  but 
then  arose  the  problem  of  securing  enough  cotton  yam. 
To  quote  from  Handy:  “ The  spinners  were  producing  al- 
ready as  much  as  their  rude  machines  would  permit,  and 
additional  spinners  were  not  to  be  had.  The  demand  for 
cotton  thread  exceeded  the  supply;  the  price  of  yam  rose 
with  the  demands  of  trade  and  the  extension  of  the  manu- 
facture and  operated  as  a check  to  the  further  increase  of 
the  exports.  The  trade  had  reached  the  point  where  hand 
carders,  single  thread  spinning  wheels,  and  the  hand  loom, 
requiring  a man  to  each  machine,  were  clearly  inadequate 
to  the  service,  and  the  cotton  trade  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  seemed  to  have  reached  its 
limit.” 

Then  it  was  that  Hargreaves,  Arkwright,  Crompton,  Cart- 


18 


wright,  and  Watt  invented  the  machinery  which  in  time 
enabled  the  cotton  industry  to  become  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  the  world.  Their  inventions,  the  carding  engine, 
the  spinning  jenny,  the  spinning  frame,  the  stocking  frame, 
the  power  loom,  used  in  connection  with  the  steam  engine, 
very  shortly  supplied  the  means  of  producing  quantities  of 
yam  and  cloth.  The  raw  material,  however,  continued  to 
be  limited,  the  West  Indies  and  India  supplying  all  that  it 
was  possible  to  obtain  at  this  time. 


19 


Chapter  II 

COTTON  IN  AMERICA 

The  history  of  cotton  in  America  begins  with  the  history 
of  America  itself,  for  on  the  day  of  the  discovery  of  the 
new  continent,  on  October  12,  1492,  Columbus  makes  men- 
tion in  his  diary  of  the  fact  that  upon  first  landing  the 
natives  brought  to  him,  among  other  things,  skeins  of  cotton 
thread.  “ Afterwards  when  we  were  in  the  ship’s  boats,” 
he  continues,  “ they  came  swimming  toward  us,  and 
brought  us  parrots  and  balls  of  cotton  thread  and  spears, 
and  many  other  things  which  they  exchanged  with  us  for 
other  things  which  we  gave  them,  such  as  strings  of  beads 
and  little  bells.” 

In  later  explorations  of  the  newly  discovered  country  he 
found  the  cotton  plant  growing  abundantly,  both  in  the 
West  Indies  where  he  first  landed  and  on  the  mainland,  and 
the  inhabitants  were  weaving  its  fibre  into  cloth  with  con- 
siderable skill. 

Later,  in  1519,  during  his  explorations  into  Mexico, 
Cortez  used  the  cotton  he  found  there  to  stuff  the  jackets  of 
his  soldiers  in  order  to  make  them  impervious  to  the  arrows 
of  the  natives.  Furthermore,  among  the  presents  sent  by 
him  to  Charles  V.  of  Spain  were  mantles,  waistcoats,  coun- 
terpanes and  tapestries  made  from  cotton  fabrics.  Indeed, 
cotton  was  the  chief  article  of  clothing  among  the  Mexicans, 
as  they  had  neither  wool  nor  silk. 

Pizarro  found  cotton  in  Peru  in  1522.  In  his  story  of 
cotton,  Handy  states  that  he  has  seen  a cotton  blanket  taken 
from  around  a Peruvian  mummy.  The  fibres,  to  which 
some  of  the  seed  were  clinging,  were  loosely  spun  into  thick 
yarn  and  were  in  a good  state  of  preservation. 

In  brief,  it  would  appear  that  in  Mexico,  and  in  Central 
and  South  America,  and  occasionally  in  the  Southern  part 
of  what  is  now  the  United  States,  cotton  was  known  and 
used  at  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  America. 


20 


Chapter  III 

COTTON  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Curiously  enough,  the  United  States,  the  last  to  enter  the 
list  of  the  cotton  growing  countries,  became  in  an  incredibly 
short  time  the  first  in  the  amount  produced. 

The  first  mention  of  cotton  growing  in  the  United  States 
proper  is  by  DeVica,  who  found  it  in  1536  in  the  territory 
which  is  now  the  states  of  Louisiana  and  Texas.  No  effort 
to  produce  it,  however,  seems  to  have  been  made  until 
shortly  after  the  first  English  settlement  at  Jamestown  in 
1606.  In  a pamphlet  entitled  44  Nova  Britannica;  Offering 
Most  Excellent  Fruits  of  Planting  in  Virginia,”  published 
in  1609,  it  is  stated  that  cotton  would  grow  as  well  in  that 
province  as  in  Italy.  Bancroft,  the  historian,  says  that  the 
first  effort  in  cotton  culture  was  made  in  Virginia  in  1621, 
the  seeds  being  planted  as  an  experiment,  and  44  their  plen- 
tiful coming  up  ” was  a subject  of  interest  in  both  America 
and  England. 

The  next  definite  reference  to  cotton  in  this  country  was 
not  until  some  years  later,  in  1666,  when  a tract  was  pub- 
lished in  London  relating  that  a plantation  had  been  settled 
by  the  English  at  Cape  Fear  and  that  the  settlers  had  44  in- 
digo, very  good  tobacco,  and  cotton  wool.” 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  cotton  was  being  culti- 
vated to  some  extent  in  the  Carolinas,  although  it  was  con- 
fined to  domestic  use.  Lawson,  in  a history  of  North 
Carolina,  says:  44  We  have  not  only  provisions  plentiful, 

but  clothes  of  our  own  manufacture,  which  are  made  and 
daily  increase,  cotton,  wool,  and  flax  being  of  our  own 
growth,  and  the  women  are  to  be  highly  commended  for 
industry  in  spinning  and  ordering  their  housewifery  to  so 
great  an  advantage  as  they  do.” 

Another  historian,  Pickett,  says  that  in  1728  the  colony 
of  Louisiana,  which  at  that  time  occupied  nearly  all  of  the 
southwestern  part  of  the  United  States,  produced  cotton. 


21 


indigo,,  tobacco  and  grain,  the  fields  being  cultivated  by 
slaves. 

A rather  remarkable  feature  of  the  early  production  of 
cotton  in  this  country  was  that  it  was  successfully  grown 
so  much  farther  north  than  it  is  now  cultivated.  Trench 
Coxe,  of  Philadelphia,  states  that  it  was  grown,  more  in 
gardens  than  for  manufacture,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
Chesapeake  Bay  in  Maryland,  and  that,  during  the  Revo- 
lutionary War,  it  was  cultivated  for  army  use  in  Delaware 
and  the  southern  part  of  New  Jersey.  Furthermore,  at  this 
time  the  home-grown  cotton  was  sufficiently  abundant  in 
Pennsylvania  to  supply  the  domestic  needs  of  that  state. 
However,  production  on  any  scale  was  never  attempted  out- 
side the  boundary  of  the  so-called  cotton  belt.  Louisiana, 
Georgia,  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia  more  and  more  turned 
to  the  planting  of  cotton,  encouraged  thereto  by  climatic 
and  soil  conditions,  as  well  as  by  legislative  enactment. 
The  provincial  congresses  of  several  of  the  southern  states 
recommended  that  “ all  persons  having  proper  land  ought 
to  cultivate  and  raise  a quantity  of  hemp,  flax  and  cotton, 
not  only  for  the  use  of  their  families,  but  to  spare  to  others 
on  moderate  terms.” 

In  1786,  Thomas  Jefferson  wrote:  “ The  four  southern- 
most states  make  a great  deal  of  cotton.  Their  poor  are 
almost  entirely  clothed  with  it  in  winter  and  summer.  In 
winter  they  wear  shirts  of  it  and  outer  clothing  of  cotton 
and  wool  mixed.  In  summer  their  shirts  are  linen,  but  the 
outer  clothing  cotton.  The  dress  of  the  women  is  almost 
entirely  of  cotton,  manufactured  by  themselves,  except  the 
richer  class,  and  even  many  of  these  wear  a great  deal  of 
homespun  cotton.  It  is  as  well  manufactured  as  the  cali- 
coes of  Europe.” 

The  greatest  impetus  to  the  cultivation  of  cotton  was 
given  by  the  war  of  the  Revolution.  One  of  the  earliest 
results  of  the  conflict  was  the  cutting  off  of  trade  with  Eng- 
land, which  meant  that  the  importation  of  manufactured 


22 


goods  entirely  ceased.  To  meet  the  home  demand,  how- 
ever, Southern  cotton  growers  planted  more  cotton,  with 
the  result  that  today  the  South  Atlantic  and  lower  Missis- 
sippi States  are  the  source  of  about  seventy  per  cent  of  the 
cotton  supply  of  the  world.  This  supply  not  only  furnishes 
the  raw  material  for  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  in 
this  country,  but  it  is  one  of  the  largest  items  of  export. 

The  following  table  gives  the  production  of  cotton  for 
the  hundred  years  from  1790  to  1890,  showing  an  increase 
from  4,000  bales  to  the  banner  crop  of  1914  of  over  16,- 
000,000  bales. 

Cotton  Crops  of  the  United  States  at  Stated  Periods 

Year  Bales — Each  500  pounds  net 


1790 

1800 

1810 

1820 

1830 

1840 

1850 

1860 

1870 

1880 

1890 

1900 

1910 

1914 

1920 

1921 
*1922 


10,123,027 

11,608,616 

16,134,930 

13,439,603 


7,953,641 

9,615,000 


4,000 

96,000 

170.000 

360.000 

770.000 
1,288,000 
2,000,000 

4.582.000 

2.703.000 

6.062.000 
8,242,000 


*Estimated 


23 


Chapter  IV 


COTTON  MANUFACTURING  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 

Cotton  manufacturing  in  New  England  may  be  divided 
into  three  periods,  as  follows: 

1.  The  years  prior  to  1776.  During  this  time  the  cot- 
ton was  prepared  for  spinning  by  carding  with  a pair  of 
hand  cards.  The  yam  was  spun  upon  a wheel  with  a single 
spindle.  The  fabric  was  woven  upon  a common  loom,  the 
shuttle  being  held  in  one  hand.  This  work  was  done  in  the 
homes. 

2.  The  years  between  1776  and  1814,  marking  the 
change  from  house  spinning  and  weaving  to  the  segrega- 
tion into  separate  industrial  buildings.  This  period  was 
also  notable  because  of  improvements  made  in  Arkwright’s 
machinery  and  for  the  invention  of  the  cotton  gin  by  Whit- 
ney. 

3.  The  growth  of  power-driven  machinery  and  the  de- 
velopment of  the  mill  city. 

First  Period  — Prior  to  1776 

As  early  as  1638  an  endeavor  to  manufacture  cloth  was 
made  in  this  country.  In  a quaint  old  book  by  Edward 
Johnson,  entitled  “ Wonder-Working  Providences  of  Sion’s 
Saviour  in  New  England,”  is  found  the  following: — 

“ At  this  time,  the  Lord  brought  over  the  zealous- 
affected  and  judicious  servant  of  His,  Master  Ezekiel 
Rogers,  who,  with  an  holy  and  humble  people,  made 
his  progress  to  the  northeastward,  and  erected  a town 
about  six  miles  from  Ipswich,  called  Rowley.  These 
people,  being  very  industrious  in  every  way,  soon 
built  many  houses  to  the  number  of  about  threescore 
families,  and  were  the  first  people  that  set  upon  mak- 
ing cloth  in  this  western  world;  for  which  end  they 
built  a fulling-mill,  and  caused  their  little  ones  to  be 


24 


very  diligent  in  spinning  cotton-woole,  many  of  them 
having  been  clothiers  in  England  till  their  zeale  to  pro- 
mote the  Gospel  of  Christ  caused  them  to  wander.” 
The  fulling-mill  referred  to  was  doubtless  the  first  one  to 
be  built  in  this  country  and  its  need  was  called  forth  by  the 
fact  that  the  difficulties  and  uncertainties  of  intercourse  by 
vessels  with  England  made  the  colonists  desire  to  manu- 
facture their  own  fabrics  for  clothes.  This  desire  was  made 
easier  of  fulfillment  because  of  the  unlimited  and  cheap 
supply  of  raw  cotton  it  was  possible  to  secure  by  trade  with 
the  West  Indies. 

In  the  Journal  of  Governor  Winthrop,  June,  1643,  is  the 
following  entry: — - 

44  Our  supplies  from  England  failing  very  much,  men 
began  to  look  about  them  and  fell  to  the  manufacture  of 
cotton,  whereof  we  had  a store  from  Barbadoes,  and  of 
hemp  and  flax,  wherein  Rowley,  to  their  great  commenda- 
tion, exceeded  all  other  towns.” 

For  several  years  beginning  with  1645,  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  ordered  that  each  family  should 
sow  flax  and  hemp  and  preserve  the  seed  in  order  to  supply 
future  needs.  Furthermore,  the  Court  provided  by  order, 
that  a vessel  be  furnished  and  sent  forth  to  those  parts 
where  cotton  was  to  be  obtained,  and,  on  the  return  of  the 
vessel,  each  plantation  was  to  take  its  proportion  of  the 
cargo.  This  cotton,  according  to  the  order,  44  all  hands, 
not  necessarily  employed  on  other  occasions,  as  women, 
girls,  and  boys,  shall  be,  and  hereby  are,  enjoyned  to  spin 
according  to  their  skill  and  ability  . . . ” As  fur- 

ther evidence  of  the  compulsory  demand  of  the  government 
at  that  time  that  spinning  be  carried  on,  it  is  related  that 
land  was  allotted  to  one  William  How  in  Chelmsford, 
Massachusetts,  44  provided  he  set  up  his  trade  of  weaving 
. . . ” That  these  orders  were  obeyed  and  further- 

more that  they  were  efficacious  is  evident,  for  by  1731  the 
merchants  and  manufacturers  of  England  began  to  com- 


25 


plain  of  the  efforts  of  the  colonists  to  substitute  for  English 
goods  fabrics  of  their  own  manufacture  to  such  an  extent 
that  great  injury  was  done  to  the  commerce  and  industries 
of  the  mother  country. 

In  order  to  investigate  these  complaints,  the  House  of 
Commons,  in  1731,  through  their  Board  of  Trade,  made  an 
inquiry  into  “ laws  made,  manufactures  set  up,  or  trade 
carried  on,  detrimental  to  the  trade,  navigation,  or  manu- 
factures of  Great  Britain.”  The  report  made  by  the  Board 
would  indicate  that  they  found  no  evidence  to  support  the 
complaint  of  the  British  manufacturers  that  their  trade  was 
being  injured  by  the  competition  in  America,  but,  as  the 
colonists  were  not  very  desirous  of  revealing  the  extent  of 
their  manufactures,  it  is  possible  that  the  true  facts  may  not 
have  been  given  to  the  Board  of  Trade  investigators.  Al- 
ready the  Colonies  were  chafing  against  the  restrictions  laid 
upon  their  trade  and  industries,  and  were  showing  an  inde- 
pendence that  was  sensed  even  by  the  agents  sent  from 
England  to  procure  the  desired  information. 

In  the  meantime,  spinning  and  weaving  was  not  only  car- 
ried on  in  the  homes  of  the  colonists  to  supply  their  in- 
dividual needs,  but  as  an  industry  of  some  size  outside  the 
home.  The  growth  was  stimulated  by  the  arrival,  in  1718, 
of  a number  of  Protestants  from  the  North  of  Ireland,  who 
brought  with  them  their  handcards,  spinning  wheels,  and 
looms.  In  the  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  reference  is 
made  to  the  influence  the  coming  of  these  immigrants 
exerted  as  follows: — 

“ . . . a great  stir  had  been  created  in  the 

town  (Boston)  by  the  arrival  of  a number  of  Irish 
spinners  and  weavers,  bringing  the  implements  of 
their  craft.  Directly  the  “ spinning  craze,”  as  it  was 
aptly  called,  took  possession  of  the  town,  and  the 
women,  young  and  old,  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor, 
flocked  into  the  spinning  school,  which,  for  want  of 
better  quarters  was  set  up  on  the  Common,  in  the  open 


26 


air.  Here  the  whirr  of  their  wheels  was  heard  from 
morning  to  night.  Prizes  were  offered  for  the  best 
work,  and  the  enthusiasts  went  about  proudly,  clothed 
in  the  homespun  products  of  their  own  hands.” 
Whether  it  was  entirely  due  to  the  coming  of  these  immi- 
grants or  not,  it  is  evident  from  all  records  that  the  spinning 
and  weaving  industry  was  further  stimulated  at  this  time. 
A premium  was  offered  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  for  sail-duck  and  linen  made  of  domestic  mate- 
rials; bounties  were  requested  by  different  individuals  on 
all  duck  and  canvas  produced  over  a certain  amount;  loans 
were  petitioned  of  the  Court  to  aid  in  establishing  the  in- 
dustry, although  there  is  no  record  to  indicate  that  one  was 
ever  granted.  The  most  enduring  of  these  signs  of  growth, 
however,  may  be  found  in  the  spinning  schools  which  were 
set  up  in  Boston  for  the  instruction  of  children.  The  first 
of  these  schools  was  started  about  two  years  after  the  com- 
ing of  the  Irish,  or  in  1720,  but  it  was  not  until  some  twenty 
years  later  that  reference  is  made  to  them  in  public  docu- 
ments and  newspapers  of  the  time,  indicating  that  they  were 
still  in  existence.  Particularly  is  there  mention  of  a Linen 
Manufactory  House,  which  was  in  reality  a school  for  the 
instruction  of  women  and  children  in  spinning  and  weav- 
ing. This  Society,  which  was  located  in  a building  on  the 
comer  of  Tremont  Street,  at  what  is  now  known  as  Hamil- 
ton Place,  seems  to  have  provided  employment  for  “ those 
dependent  on  their  manual  labor  for  support.”  It  flour- 
ished for  several  years,  until  the  fall  of  1768,  when  an 
effort  was  made  to  appropriate  the  whole  building  as  a bar- 
racks for  British  troops.  This  attempt,  however,  was  not 
successful.  However,  it  seems  to  have  lasted  but  a short 
time,  perhaps  a year  or  so,  when  a new  organization,  called 
“ The  Society  for  Encouraging  Industry  and  Employing  the 
Poor,”  was  formed. 

During  this  period  encouragement  of  domestic  manu- 
factures, including  fabrics,  was  manifested  in  many  ways. 


27 


At  a meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  in  Faneuil  Hall 
in  1767,  it  was  voted  to  take  all  prudent  and  legal  meas- 
ures to  encourage  the  produce  and  manufactures  of  the 
Province.  Similar  votes  were  passed  in  other  places,  — 
Providence  and  Newport  and  also  in  Connecticut.  It  was 
advertised  that  “ The  senior  class  of  1768  scholars  at  the 
University  in  Cambridge  have  unanimously  agreed  to  take 
their  degrees,  next  commencement,  dressed  altogether  in 
the  manufactures  of  this  country.”  These  and  other  evi- 
dences of  increasing  interest  in  the  manufacture  of  textiles, 
not  only  in  Massachusetts  but  elsewhere  in  the  Colonies, 
and  particularly  in  Pennsylvania,  continued  until  the  years 
of  the  Revolutionary  War. 

In  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  outbreak  of  the 
war,  Arkwright  was  engaged  in  improving  machinery  for 
the  carding  and  preparation  of  cotton  for  spinning.  De- 
spite a great  deal  of  opposition  to  his  improvements,  they 
had  aided  the  business  in  England  to  such  an  extent  that,  in 
1774,  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed  to  prevent  the  ex- 
portation of  cotton  machinery,  so  that  a monopoly  of  the 
manufacture  could  be  secured  for  Great  Britain. 

During  the  War,  intercourse  with  Great  Britain  was  cut 
off.  On  its  renewal  when  the  war  was  over  and  this  country 
was  ready  once  more  to  turn  its  attention  to  manufacturing 
and  trade,  it  was  found  that  England  was  in  possession  of 
all  the  patents  on  machinery  necessary  to  the  extension  of 
the  business,  while,  in  addition  to  the  law  against  the  ex- 
portation of  machinery,  there  was  also  a law  forbidding  the 
emigration  of  mechanics  and  manufacturers.  These  re- 
strictions made  it  extremely  difficult  to  secure  the  informa- 
tion necessary  to  the  successful  conduct  of  the  industry  in 
this  country. 

Second  Period  — 1776  to  1814 

So  serious  was  the  handicap  resulting  from  the  lack  of 


28 


knowledge  of  recent  improvements  in  cotton  manufacturing 
machinery  that  various  measures  were  taken  to  overcome 
it.  By  1786,  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  had  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  models  of  machinery  showing  some  of 
Arkwright’s  improvements.  Moreover,  in  the  same  year,  a 
member  from  the  House  and  one  from  the  Senate  were 
appointed  to  inspect  any  new  machines  that  might  be  made 
in  the  Commonwealth,  and  in  this  way  the  machines  made 
by  Robert  and  Alexander  Barr  came  to  their  attention. 
These  two  brothers  had  come  from  Scotland  at  the  invita- 
tion of  Colonel  Hugh  Orr,  of  Bridgewater,  Massachusetts, 
who,  according  to  Judge  Mitchell’s  “ History  of  Bridge- 
water,”  was  responsible  for  the  first  introduction  of  cotton 
machinery  into  this  country.  Colonel  Orr  was  a gunsmith 
and  locksmith  in  his  native  land  of  Scotland,  and,  on  com- 
ing to  this  country,  engaged  in  the  same  occupation,  eventu- 
ally establishing  a foundry  and  perhaps  casting  the  first 
cannon.  Immediately  after  the  Revolution  he  became  very 
much  interested  in  the  methods  by  which  cotton  fabrics 
were  manufactured  and  it  was  then  that  he  invited  the  Barr 
brothers  to  come  to  this  country  and  construct,  at  his  foun- 
dry, machinery  for  carding,  roving  and  spinning  cotton.  It 
was  these  machines  that  were  inspected  by  the  committee 
from  the  Legislature.  This  committee  reported  so  favor- 
ably upon  them  that  a grant  of  two  hundred  pounds  was 
voted  to  the  Barrs  to  enable  them  to  complete  the  three 
machines  and  to  build  others.  The  machines  were  com- 
pleted, but  the  experiment  resulted  in  failure.  They  were 
eventually  sent  to  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  where  they 
came  into  the  possession  of  Moses  Brown,  who  was  then 
operating  a small  mill  at  Pawtucket  Bridge.  Sometime 
later  Mr.  Brown  employed  Samuel  Slater  to  organize  a cot- 
ton factory  in  Providence.  These  same  machines  upon 
which  endless  experiments  had  been  made  were  examined 
by  Slater  and  condemned  as  worthless.  He  replaced  them 


29 


with  others  which  he  constructed  also  from  memory  and 
which  proved  successful. 

Before  the  arrival  of  Slater,  however,  another  English- 
man, Thomas  Somers,  had  been  endeavoring  to  interest 
some  merchants  in  Baltimore  in  the  matter  of  encouraging 
cotton  manufacture  in  this  country.  Previously,  at  his  own 
expense  he  had  gone  to  England  to  secure  machinery  for 
carding  and  spinning,  but  had  only  succeeded  in  obtaining 
descriptions  and  models.  To  construct  machinery  from 
these  models  was  his  desire  but,  to  do  so,  he  needed  finan- 
cial assistance.  Finding  the  Baltimore  merchants  reluctant 
to  extend  this  help,  he  was  led,  on  the  advice  of  friends  in 
Boston,  to  petition  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  in 
1787,  for  aid.  The  Legislature  granted  him  twenty  pounds, 
which  sum  enabled  him  to  begin  the  manufacture  of  cotton 
yarns  and  fabrics  in  a factory  located  at  Beverly,  Massa- 
chusetts, near  Ipswich  (1788) . This,  it  is  believed,  was  the 
first  cotton  factory  to  be  opened  up  in  New  England.1 
The  building  was  erected  in  the  early  fall  of  1787  and 
by  November  first  of  the  same  year  business  had  be- 
gun. (Walton  says  — “ Before  January  6,  1789,  it  was 
completed.”) 

A newspaper  of  that  time,  the  Salem  Mercury,  de- 
scribes the  factory  as  “ a plain  three  story  building  of 
brick,  measuring  about  sixty  by  twenty-five  feet  with  a 
pitching  roof,  and  a deep  basement,  in  one  end  of  which 
moved  a heavy  pair  of  horses  to  furnish  rotary  power.” 

This  mill  at  the  time  was  considered  to  be  one  of  the 
wonders  of  the  state  well  worthy  of  a visit.  Washington, 
in  his  tour  of  the  North  in  1789,  makes  mention  of  it  in  his 
diary,  as  follows:  — 

“ Friday,  30th  October  — A little  after  eight  o’clock 
I set  out  (from  Salem)  for  Newburyport,  and  in  less 

1 — The  first  in  the  United  States  was  at  Philadelphia,  about  1775,  the 
“Philadelphia  Society  for  Promoting  Manufactures  and  Useful  Arts  in 
Philadelphia.” 


30 


than  two  miles  crossed  the  bridge  between  Salem  and 
Beverly  . . . After  passing  Beverly  two  miles,  we 
came  to  a cotton  manufactory.  . . In  this  manu- 

factory they  have  the  new  invented  carding  and  spin- 
ning machines.” 

After  describing  the  process  by  which  the  cotton  yarn  is 
woven,  he  states  that  — 

“ In  short,  the  whole  seemed  perfect,  and  the  cotton 
stuffs  which  they  turn  out  excellent  of  their  kind, — 
warp  and  filling  both  cotton.” 

These  “ cotton  stuffs  ” mentioned  by  Washington  were 
corduroys,  bed  tickings,  cotton  velvets,  jeans,  shirtings, 
sheeting,  and  table  cloths.  One  of  the  employes,  of  whom 
there  were  about  forty  in  all,  stated  in  later  years  that  he 
had  never  seen  such  tickings.  “ The  blue  was  colored  with 
the  best  indigo.  The  white  was  bleached  upon  a platform 
in  the  sun,  and  it  sold  for  seventy-five  cents,  and  three- 
fourths  shirting  for  fifty  cents  per  yard.  His  customers 
were  principally  from  Salem  and  Newburyport.”1 

From  all  accounts,  and  they  are  very  few,  the  Beverly 
Cotton  Factory  was  in  operation  for  about  fifteen  or  eight- 
een years,  or  until  the  embargo  placed  upon  shipping  dur- 
ing the  Napoleonic  Wars  destroyed  the  trade  upon  which 
Salem  and  Newburyport  depended.  The  building  itself 
remained  until  1828  when  it  was  destroyed  by  fire.  Al- 
though it  is  inferred  that  the  articles  manufactured  were 
of  superior  quality,  yet  the  business  never  proved  to  be 
profitable,  the  loss  at  times  being  very  great. 

Other  establishments  for  the  manufacture  of  cotton  came 
into  being  at  about  the  time  the  Beverly  factory  was  in 
operation,  although  none  of  them  had  a very  long  life.  In 
1788,  the  manufacture  of  sail-cloth  was  begun  in  Boston 
by  the  Boston  Sail-Cloth  Manufactory,  closing  about  1796. 
In  1789,  factories  were  opened  at  Worcester  and  Haver- 


1 — Letter  written  by  Joshua  Herrick  to  Samuel  Batchelder,  1863. 

31 


hill,  the  latter  making  duck.  In  1790,  Dr.  Josiah  Lathrop 
established  a factory  at  Norwich,  Connecticut.  In  1791, 
David  Buffum  commenced  the  manufacture  of  cotton  yams 
and  cloth  in  the  basement  of  the  State  House  at  Newport, 
Rhode  Island,  but  four  years  later  the  machinery  was  sold 
to  Moses  Brown  and  removed  to  Providence. 

So  far,  however,  the  only  machinery  it  was  possible  to 
secure  was  either  a crude  imitation  of  that  in  use  in  Eng- 
land or  else  rough  models  made  by  American  inventors. 
No  one  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  one  of  Arkwright’s 
machines,  nor  in  successfully  reproducing  one  in  this 
country. 

This  is  perhaps  the  main  reason  why  the  industry,  al- 
though it  had  made  some  progress,  had  not  grown  as 
rapidly  as  it  had  in  England.  There  the  decided  impetus 
to  the  industry  was  due  to  the  experiments  and  improve- 
ments to  the  spinning  jenny  and  other  machinery  made  by 
Richard  Arkwright  since  1767,  and  their  use  in  all  of  the 
cotton  mills  of  the  country. 

To  a youth  employed  in  one  of  the  English  mills  in  the 
80’s  we  owe  the  success  of  the  cotton  industry  in  America. 
He  introduced  into  America  the  Arkwright  system  of  cotton 
machinery  at  a time  when  the  impulse  which  it  gave  to 
cotton  manufacturing  was  sadly  needed. 

This  man,  Samuel  Slater  (B.  1768)  later  called  the 
“ Father  of  the  American  Cotton  Industry,”  was  appren- 
ticed when  a mere  boy  to  a cotton  manufacturer  at  Milford, 
England.  He  showed  such  industry  and  skill  that  by  the 
time  he  was  eighteen  years  old  he  had  become  an  overseer 
and  was  even  then  planning  for  the  time  when  he  should 
have  an  establishment  of  his  own.  From  several  sources 
he  had  become  aware  of  the  condition  of  cotton  manufac- 
ture in  America  and  with  the  foresight  to  apprehend  that 
one  of  his  knowledge  and  experience  would  without  doubt 
be  successful  in  a field  which  offered  so  many  opportu- 
nities, he  decided  to  emigrate.  He  was  aware,  of  course, 


32 


that  it  was  against  the  law  for  a skilled  mechanic  to  leave 
the  country,  and  also  that  it  was  forbidden  to  take  or  send 
out  of  the  country  patterns  or  models  of  machinery,  so  that 
it  was  necessary  not  only  to  leave  in  disguise  but  also  to 
depend  on  his  memory  and  skill  for  constructing  in  Amer- 
ica the  machines  constituting  the  so-called  Arkwright 
system.  Accordingly,  he  made  preparations  and  sailed 
from  London  as  a farm  laborer,  landing  in  New  York  in 
the  late  fall  of  1789,  after  a voyage  of  sixty-six  days. 

In  less  than  a week  he  found  employment  but  soon  saw 
that  it  did  not  afford  the  opportunity  he  had  come  here  to 
secure.  It  was  then  that  circumstances  led  him  to  write 
and  offer  his  services  to  Moses  Brown,  a retired  merchant 
in  Providence,  of  whom  he  had  heard  as  being  greatly 
interested  in  experiments  in  cotton  manufacture  for  domes- 
tic use.  Brown  promptly  replied  and  the  result  of  the 
correspondence  was  that  Slater  left  New  York  and  went  to 
Providence.  From  there,  he  was  taken  by  Brown  to  Paw- 
tucket to  inspect  the  machines  which  so  far  had  failed  to 
give  satisfaction.  A very  slight  examination  convinced 
Slater  that  they  were  worthless,  which  fact  he  communi- 
cated to  Brown,  proposing  at  the  same  time  to  construct 
new  ones  after  the  Arkwright  patents  “ Under  my  propo- 
sals,” he  said,  “ if  I do  not  make  as  good  yarn  as  they  do 
in  England,  I will  have  nothing  for  my  services,  but  will 
throw  the  whole  of  what  I have  attempted  over  the  border.” 

In  three  months  from  the  time  of  his  arrival  in  Pawtucket 
such  progress  had  been  made  in  the  construction  of  new 
machines  that  ultimate  success  seemed  assured.  Articles 
of  partnership  were  drawn  up  between  Slater  and  William 
Almy  and  Smith  Brown,  who  had  previously  conducted  a 
small  cotton  mill  in  which  Moses  Brown  was  interested 
under  the  firm  of  Almy  and  Brown.  The  new  company 
was  called  Almy,  Brown  and  Slater,  and,  under  the  terms 
of  partnership,  Almy  and  Brown  furnished  the  capital, 
while  Slater,  in  return  for  constructing  the  machinery  and 


33 


managing  the  factory,  was  to  receive  one-half  of  the  profits 
and  own  one-half  of  the  machinery.  These  terms  seemed 
to  be  very  advantageous  to  Slater,  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
it  was  only  by  depending  on  his  skill  and  memory  that  the 
complicated  machinery  needed  could  be  constructed. 

That  he  was  successful  is  a matter  of  history.  It  took 
but  a few  months  until  perfected  machines  were  in  use  and 
the  success  of  the  cotton  manufacture  in  America  assured. 
A new  mill  was  built  in  1790,  now  called  the  “ Old  Slater 
Mill,”  with  later  additions.  In  1791,  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, in  his  report  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  said, — 
“ The  manufactory  at  Providence  has  the  merit  of  being 
the  first  in  introducing  into  the  United  States  the  celebrated 
cotton  mill,  which  not  only  furnishes  materials  for  that 
manufactory  itself  but  for  the  supply  of  private  families, 
for  household  manufacture.” 

About  a year  after  the  mill  began  to  operate.  Slater 
wrote  to  Hamilton  that  he  could  shortly  supply  the  whole 
United  States  with  yarn  at  a lower  price  than  it  could  be 
imported  from  England.  Then,  a yard  of  cloth  cost  from 
forty  to  fifty  cents:  a few  years  later  it  cost  nine  or  ten 
cents. 

According  to  all  records,  the  operatives  in  this  early  mill 
included  children  from  eight  to  fourteen  years  old.  The 
wages  paid  were  very  low,  ranging  from  eighty  cents  to 
about  $1.40  a week.  Naturally,  at  this  wage,  help  was 
difficult  to  secure,  and,  furthermore,  the  children  who  were 
employed  lacked  training  or  education  of  any  kind.  To 
remedy  this,  Slater,  who  combined  with  his  strict  discipli- 
nary measures  a real  interest  in  the  welfare  of  those  in  his 
employ,  started  a Sunday  School  in  his  own  house,  teach- 
ing the  children  himself.  This,  it  is  believed,  was  the  first 
Sunday  School  in  America. 

The  business  of  Almy,  Brown  & Slater  was  successful 
from  the  start,  the  success  being  due  in  large  part  to  Slater. 
Other  mills  were  built  and  managed  by  him,  while  men 
trained  under  his  management  went  to  other  localities  and 


34 


established  cotton  factories.  In  time.  Slater  became  the 
recognized  head  of  the  cotton  industry  in  those  parts  of 
New  England  where  the  establishment  of  mills  had  been 
due  to  his  example  and  success. 

It  has  always  been  regarded  as  an  interesting  coinci- 
dence in  the  history  of  cotton  manufacture  that  in  the  same 
year  with  the  erection  of  the  first  mill  by  Almy,  Brown  & 
Slater,  a machine  was  invented  which  was  of  material  aid 
in  establishing  the  success  of  what  in  time  grew  to  be  the 
foremost  industry  of  the  United  States. 

This  machine  was  the  cotton  gin,  invented  by  Eli  Whit- 
ney in  1794,  which  may  be  briefly  described  as  a mechani- 
cal hand  which  separates  the  cotton  from  its  seed.  For- 
merly this  work  was  done  by  slaves  on  the  cotton  planta- 
tions in  the  South,  the  seed  being  picked  from  the  cotton 
by  hand  in  a necessarily  slow  and  laborious  manner.  When 
it  was  suggested  to  Whitney  that  he  make  a machine  to 
perform  this  work,  he  replied  that  44  he  had  never  seen 
either  cotton  or  cotton-seed  in  his  life,”  but  he  set  to  work 
and  in  a short  time  had  made  a machine  that  separated 
more  cotton  from  the  seed  in  one  day  than  could  be  done 
in  the  usual  manner  in  many  months.  As  to  its  value,  in 
the  words  of  Judge  Johnson,  in  the  United  States  Court, 
44  it  would  be  a waste  of  time  to  dwell  long  upon  this  topic.” 
44  The  whole  interior  of  the  Southern  States  was  languish- 
ing,” he  further  stated,  in  granting  an  injunction  against  an 
infringement  of  the  patent,  44  and  its  inhabitants  emigrat- 
ing, for  want  of  some  object  to  engage  their  attention  and 
employ  their  industry,  when  the  invention  of  this  machine 
at  once  opened  views  to  them  which  set  the  whole  country 
in  active  motion.  From  childhood  to  age,  it  has  presented 
to  us  a lucrative  employment.  Individuals,  who  were  de- 
pressed with  poverty  and  sunk  in  idleness,  have  suddenly 
risen  to  wealth  and  respectability.  Our  debts  have  been 
paid  off.  Our  capitals  have  increased,  and  our  lands 
trebled  themselves  in  value.  We  cannot  express  the  weight 


35 


of  the  obligation  which  the  country  owes  to  this  inven- 
tion.” This  was  said  in  1807,  or  in  slightly  more  than  a 
decade  after  the  invention  was  made. 

When  war  was  declared  against  England  in  1812,  the 
industrial  outlook  in  the  United  States  became  for  a time 
very  gloomy.  The  trade  which  had  grown  up  with  Eng- 
land and  the  Continent  suddenly  ended  when  England 
forbade  all  commerce  except  under  British  licenses,  while 
Napoleon,  on  his  part,  had  decreed  that  all  vessels  sailing 
under  such  licenses  should  be  confiscated.  Between  the 
two,  American  shipping  was  ruined.  It  was  then  that  far- 
sighted American  manufacturers  began  to  realize  that  what 
seemed  to  be  disaster  might  ultimately  prove  to  be  the 
means  of  greater  industrial  development.  It  occurred  to 
them  to  supply  the  needs  of  this  country  with  articles  of 
home  production,  instead  of  depending,  as  heretofore, 
upon  importations  of  manufactured  goods  from  England. 
This  was  made  easier  because  a great  deal  of  the  capital 
formerly  used  in  shipping  was  withdrawn  and  made  avail- 
able for  investment.  Furthermore,  prices  of  imported 
goods  had  reached  an  extravagant  figure,  cotton,  for  exam- 
ple, having  increased  from  seventeen  to  about  seventy-five 
cents  a yard.  Altogether,  with  the  demand  for  goods,  the 
availability  of  capital,  and  the  high  prices,  it  seemed  a 
most  favorable  time,  in  the  opinion  of  those  interested  in 
cotton  manufacture,  to  extend  the  industry.  As  a further 
incentive,  the  use  of  the  power  loom  was  introduced  into 
this  country  just  at  this  time,  without  which  it  would  have 
been  much  more  difficult  for  the  industry  to  survive  the 
threatened  ruin  of  the  war. 

This  power  loom  was,  in  effect,  the  next  logical  step 
after  the  spinning  jenny,  for  the  introduction  of  the  latter 
had  so  facilitated  the  production  of  yam  that  a great  deal 
more  was  on  hand  than  could  be  woven.  In  other  words, 
weaving  was  not  keeping  pace  with  spinning.  For  some 
time  the  problem  received  serious  consideration  in 


36 


England  and  was  finally  solved  by  a clergyman,  Ed- 
mund Cartwright,  who  had  never,  he  averred,  “ turned  his 
thoughts  to  anything  mechanical,  either  in  theory  or  prac- 
tice, nor  had  even  seen  a loom  at  work,  or  knew  anything 
of  its  construction.”  However,  in  spite  of  his  ignorance 
of  mechanics,  he  succeeded  with  little  effort  in  making  a 
loom  which,  in  its  general  principles,  is  similar  to  those  in 
use  to  this  day.  Its  chief  value,  of  course,  was  that  it 
enabled  the  weaving  to  be  done  at  a much  greater  speed 
than  could  ever  be  attained  by  hand ; but,  in  addition,  great 
merit  lay  in  the  automatic  stopping  of  the  machine  when 
the  thread  broke,  heretofore  this  having  been  the  main 
obstacle  in  the  way  of  weaving  by  power  machinery. 

It  was  against  the  law  to  export  to  another  country  this 
loom,  or  other  machinery  in  use  in  England.  The  small 
amount  of  machinery  which  did  succeed  in  reaching 
America  at  this  time  was  taken  to  pieces,  mixed  up  with 
other  articles,  sent  over  on  different  vessels  and  assem- 
bled later  in  this  country.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Ark- 
wright machines,  however,  the  obstacle  in  the  way  of 
obtaining  this  latest  improvement  was  overcome  by  re- 
building the  desired  model  from  memory.  This  was  done 
by  an  American,  Francis  Cabot  Lowell,  who,  although  not 
actively  engaged  in  the  industry,  had  been  for  some  time 
very  much  interested  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton. 

Perry  Walton  in  his  “ Story  of  Textiles,”  states  that 
within  three  years  after  Slater’s  completion  of  his  first  mill, 
ten  other  mills  were  wholly  or  partially  completed  in 
Rhode  Island  and  before  1808  fifteen  mills  altogether  had 
been  put  into  operation. 

About  1809  sales  were  made  in  Boston  of  the  first  cot- 
ton duck  made  in  New  England,  if  not  in  the  world.  The 
census  of  1810  gives  the  number  of  cotton  mills  in  New 
England  as  follows: 


37 


Massachusetts 

54 

Rhode  Island 

28 

Connecticut 

14 

New  Hampshire 

12 

Vermont 

1 

Total 

109 

In  the  other  states  of  the  Union  there  were  129  more 
mills,  Pennsylvania  leading  with  64,  so  that  there  were  in 
the  country  previous  to  the  war  of  1812,  238  cotton  mills. 

From  1809  to  1815  more  than  50  mills  were  under  con- 
struction in  New  England  grouped  in  a compact  area,  ex- 
tending from  Providence  northwest  along  the  valley  of 
Blackstone  and  southwest  through  the  valley  of  Pawtucket 
and  over  the  Rhode  Island  borders  into  neighboring  town- 
ships of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut. 

From  1809  to  1815  the  mills  around  Providence  in- 
creased from  41  to  169.  The  spindles  in  these  mills  in- 
creased from  20,000  to  135,000.  This  was  largely  the 
result  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  which  hastened  the  transition 
from  flax  to  cotton  throughout  the  world.  Our  war  of 
1812  closed  in  1815  which  year  also  marked  the  end  of 
the  Napoleonic  era.  With  the  resumption  of  imports  for- 
eign goods  flooded  our  markets  and  closed  most  of  the 
169  mills  which  had  grown  up  during  the  period  of  pros- 
perity. The  survivors  were  those  which  by  reason  of 
location,  management,  equipment  and  resources  were  en- 
abled to  continue  the  industry  successfully. 

Third  Period 

The  third  period  considers  the  growth  of  power-driven 
machinery  and  the  development  of  the  mill  city  as  set  forth 
in  the  following  chapters,  “ The  Founding  of  the  Waltham 
System,”  and  “ Lowell.” 


38 


Chapter  V 


THE  FOUNDING  OF  THE  WALTHAM  COMPANY 

Francis  Cabot  Lowell,  the  father  of  the  modern  cotton 
mill,  was  born  in  Newburyport,  in  1775.  He  graduated 
from  Harvard  in  1793  and  established  himself  early  in 
life  as  a successful  merchant  in  Boston.  While  in  Europe 
for  his  health  in  1811  he  met,  in  Edinburgh,  an  old  friend 
in  the  person  of  Nathan  Appleton,  also  of  Boston,  and  dis- 
cussed with  him  the  possibilities  in  the  future  of  cotton 
manufacturing  in  America.  After  frequent  conversations 
on  the  subject,  it  was  their  common  opinion  that  this  coun- 
try need  not  depend  upon  England  for  fabrics,  but  that  all 
that  was  needed  for  home  consumption  could  be  supplied 
if  the  industry  were  properly  developed. 

Lowell,  therefore,  before  returning  to  America,  visited 
one  of  the  large  textile  centers  of  England  and  secured  all 
the  information  obtainable  in  regard  to  methods  and  ma- 
chinery, with  a view  to  introducing  all  improvements  of 
manufacture  into  the  United  States.  In  Manchester,  he 
was  permitted  to  inspect  the  machinery  in  use  in  the  mills, 
although  he  was  unable  to  secure  any  drawings.  Notwith- 
standing this  handicap  he  carried  away  definite  ideas  as  to 
their  construction  for  future  development  in  the  United 
States. 

Immediately  on  his  return,  in  1813,  he  talked  the  mat- 
ter over  carefully  with  his  brother-in-law,  Patrick  Tracy 
Jackson,  who  was  also  a merchant  in  Boston,  and  they  de- 
cided to  establish  a cotton  manufactory  at  some  place  in  the 
vicinity  where  water  power  was  available. 

In  this  connection,  Lowell  now  endeavored  to  re-invent, 
or  adapt  to  the  purposes  he  had  in  mind,  the  machinery 
used  in  the  textile  mills  which  he  had  visited  in  England. 
The  result  was  that,  among  other  things,  he  succeeded  in 
rebuilding  the  power  loom. 

While  studying  the  machinery  and  methods  of  cotton 


39 


manufacture  in  England,  Lowell  had  not  failed  to  observe 
the  low  character  and  unhappy  condition  of  operatives  in 
the  European  mills.  He  determined  that  these  conditions 
should  not  prevail  in  America.  In  his  opinion,  an  element 
of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  future  success  of  the 
venture  lay  in  the  fact  that  here  in  New  England  was  a 
supply  of  labor  of  such  excellent  character  in  comparison 
to  that  employed  in  European  mills  that  with  their  help  suc- 
cess was  practically  assured.  The  questions  in  his  mind 
were  — whether  these  native  New  Englanders  were  not  of 
too  high  caliber  to  be  easily  persuaded  to  come  to  the 
towns  and  to  work  in  the  mills.  What  would  be  the  effect 
on  their  character?  Could  they  be  induced  to  leave  their 
country  homes  unless  their  welfare  were  securely  safe- 
guarded? All  these  questions  were  considered  by  Lowell, 
and  to  meet  them  he  originated  what  later  became  known 
as  the  “ Waltham  System,”  based  on  the  conviction  that 
efficient  means  must  be  adopted  for  the  moral  and  physical 
welfare  of  the  operatives. 

Eventually,  the  company  as  it  was  then  called,  at 
its  own  cost  established  boarding  houses  under  the  charge 
of  carefully  selected  matrons.  Here  every  provision 
was  made  for  the  comfort  and  well-being  of  the  young 
people  who  flocked  from  all  over  New  England  to  the  mill 
towns,  where  not  only  employment,  but  society  and  oppor- 
tunities for  advancement  were  afforded  them.  Religious 
instruction,  free  schools  for  the  children  of  the  employes, 
support  of  churches  for  the  benefit  of  the  operatives, — 
these  were  the  beginnings  of  the  welfare  work  which  proved 
to  be  the  pioneer  of  all  such  activity  as  it  is  conducted  in 
the  United  States  today. 

Hitherto,  all  the  cotton  mills  in  the  world  were  designed 
so  that  the  spinning  and  weaving  were  done  in  separate 
establishments.  In  the  mill  which  Lowell  was  planning  to 
build  he  intended  to  arrange  that  all  the  processes  for  the 
conversion  of  cotton  into  cloth  should  be  carried  on  within 


40 


the  walls  of  one  building,  and,  what  was  still  more  radical, 
the  processes  were  not  to  be  done  by  hand  but  by  power. 

To  those  not  familiar  with  the  investigations  which 
Lowell  had  made  and  who  were  unaware  of  the  plans 
which  he  had  in  mind,  the  project  seemed  to  be  impracti- 
cal. Objections  were  raised  on  all  sides,  and,  as  stated 
by  an  associate  a few  years  later,  many  of  Lowell’s  near- 
est connections  used  all  of  their  influence  to  dissuade  him 
from  the  pursuit  of  what  they  deemed  a visionary  and 
dangerous  scheme;  but  he  was  neither  dissuaded  nor  dis- 
couraged. 

In  1813,  a company  was  formed,  called  the  Waltham 
Company,  which  obtained  an  act  of  incorporation  and  pur- 
chased a water  power  at  Waltham,  on  the  Charles  River. 
The  charter  authorized  a capital  of  $400,000,  but  it  was 
intended  to  raise  only  about  one-quarter  of  this  amount 
until  the  experiment  should  be  fairly  tried.  Of  this  sum, 
Lowell  and  Patrick  Tracy  Jackson  subscribed  the  greater 
part.  By  the  following  year,  the  use  of  the  power  loom 
had  proved  so  profitable  a change  from  hand  labor  that 
the  full  capital  was  quickly  subscribed.  Mr.  Jackson  be- 
came the  manager  of  the  new  company.  The  mill,  a five- 
story  brick  structure,  contained  3,000  spindles,  and  about 
4,000  yards  of  goods  were  produced  each  week. 

The  first  cloth  made,  was  a heavy  sheeting  of  Number 
14  yam,  37  inches  wide,  weighing  less  than  three  yards 
to  the  pound.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  there  was  diffi- 
culty in  selling  this  cloth.  At  first  it  was  placed  in  a shop 
on  Cornhill,  Boston,  kept  by  a Mrs.  Bowers,  who  com- 
plained that  although  customers  admired  the  quality  and 
found  no  fault  with  the  price,  yet  it  failed  to  sell.  Then, 
at  the  suggestion  of  Nathan  Appleton,  who  had  been  in- 
terested in  the  mill  ever  since  he  and  Lowell  had  met  and 
planned  together  in  Edinburgh,  it  was  placed  with  B.  C. 
Ward  & Company,  who  sold  it  at  auction  for  about  30c  a 


41 


yard  on  a commission  of  one  per  cent.  Appleton  later  be- 
came the  selling  agent  for  the  mill. 

By  the  time  the  war  with  England  was  ended  the  Wal- 
tham Company  had  the  most  extensive  and  prosperous 
cotton  mill  in  the  country,  a prestige  which  it  maintained 
for  some  years,  or  until  the  mills  at  Lowell  were  estab- 
lished. In  the  light  of  wages  and  hours  of  work  as  they 
exist  today,  it  is  particularly  interesting  to  note  that  in 
those  early  days  the  operatives  worked  almost  twice  as 
many  hours  a Aveek  as  they  do  now.  Until  1850,  13V> 
hours  a day,  winter  and  summer,  was  the  rule,  or  about  80 
hours  a week.  “ The  factory  bell  awakened  them  at  four- 
thirty  A.M.,  and  they  went  to  work  at  five,  then  at  seven 
went  out  to  breakfast,  returning  at  seven-thirty.  At  twelve 
they  were  dismissed  for  dinner,  for  which  30  to  45  minutes 
were  allowed,  then  they  returned  and  worked  until  half- 
past seven  in  the  evening.”  Wages,  also,  were  very  small 
when  compared  with  those  paid  today.  The  average  was 
about  $1.25  a week,  of  which  75c  was  paid  to  the  corpora- 
tion for  board.  This  mill  is  still  in  operation,  since  1901 
under  the  name  of  “ The  Boston  Manufacturing  Company,” 
but  as  the  Waltham  Company  it  will  long  be  noted  as  the 
pioneer  in  cotton  manufacturing.  All  of  the  methods  of 
operating  a mill  as  they  are  in  existence  today  were  insti- 
tuted here, — introduction  of  power  machinery,  process  of 
manufacture  in  one  building,  mill  organization,  and  wel- 
fare work. 

All  these  the  industry  owes  to  the  foresight  and  ability 
of  Francis  Cabot  Lowell.  It  is  most  fitting  that,  in  the  city 
which  bears  his  name,  his  ideas  should  have  been  devel- 
oped to  an  efficiency  beyond  his  dreams. 


42 


Chapter  YI 


LOWELL 

Previous  to  the  coming  of  the  white  man,  the  site  of 
what  is  now  the  city  of  Lowell  had  been  the  capital  of  an 
Indian  settlement  called  Wamesit.  This  settlement,  the 
headquarters  of  the  five  great  tribes  which  were  found  in 
New  England, — the  Massachusetts,  Narragansetts,  Poko- 
nokets,  Pequots  and  Pawtuckets  — - was  chosen  in  the  begin- 
ning by  the  Indians  because  of  the  abundant  supply  of  fish 
to  be  found  here.  The  first  settlers  called  it  Sturgeon 
River,  Merrimack  being  the  Indian  name  for  sturgeon.  At 
the  time  the  settlement  was  first  discovered  by  the  white 
men  it  had  a population  of  about  twelve  thousand,  al- 
though this  number  was  more  than  doubled  at  the  sea- 
sons when  the  tribes  gathered,  as  they  periodically  did,  for 
council. 

It  was  here  that,  as  early  as  1653,  John  Eliot  gathered 
the  Indians  about  him  “ beneath  the  trees  of  the  forest,  in 
sound  of  the  rushing  water,”  and  preached  to  them.  With 
the  coming  of  the  white  settlers  the  Indians  began  to  de- 
crease and  in  less  than  a decade  they  could  be  numbered 
by  hundreds  rather  than  by  thousands.  Land  was  first 
bought  from  them  in  1686,  two  Englishmen  making  what  is 
called  the  Wamesit  Purchase,  which  consisted  of  a large 
lot  of  land  west  of  the  Concord  River.  Subsequently, 
other  and  smaller  parcels  were  pxxrchased  and  in  time  the 
Indians  were  entirely  replaced  by  white  settlers  from  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  By  1725,  the  Indian  meeting- 
place  had  entirely  disappeared  and  in  its  stead  was  a thriv- 
ing town  called  Chelmsford,  part  of  which  later  became 
Lowell. 

At  this  time  another  settlement  was  flourishing  to  the 
northeast  of  Chelmsford,  called  Newburyport,  a town  which 
was  primarily  founded  because  of  the  unusual  facilities 


43 


its  location  offered  for  shipbuilding.  The  location  of  this 
settlement  was  on  the  sea  and  at  the  same  time  adjacent  to 
vast  tracts  of  forest  land.  To  secure  the  lumber  for  this 
industry  was  no  doubt  the  first  errand  that  brought  the 
white  men  to  the  locality  as  for  many  years  the  principal 
occupation  of  the  settlers  was  lumbering,  the  logs  being 
floated  down  the  river  to  Newburyport  where  they  were 
used  in  the  building  of  ships.  For  this  purpose  the  Mer- 
rimack River  was  well  adapted  as  the  descent  was  rapid,  in 
some  places  there  being  a fall  of  several  feet.  However, 
these  very  falls  were  the  obstacle  in  the  way  of  a smooth 
passage  for  other  traffic,  and  finally,  to  overcome  the  diffi- 
culty encountered  as  the  greatest  of  these  falls  (Pawtucket) 
which  descended  32  feet,  a canal  was  planned  round  it,  a 
mile  and  a half  long,  with  four  locks.  The  first  boat 
passed  through  in  1797  and  it  is  related  that  the  occasion 
was  a matter  of  great  interest  throughout  the  country,  hun- 
dreds assembling  on  the  first  lock  to  witness  the  passage. 
As  soon  as  the  boat  containing  the  directors  of  the  com- 
pany which  built  the  canal  and  their  guests  had  entered  the 
lock,  its  sides  gave  way  and  all  were  carried  rapidly  down 
the  stream.  However,  no  lives  were  lost  and  no  one  suf- 
fered beyond  having  an  unexpected  bath  and  a great 
fright,  but  the  incident  was  long  remembered,  forming  part 
of  the  history  of  the  Pawtucket  Falls  Canal. 

In  the  days  when  Lowell  was  experimenting  with  ma- 
chinery in  a room  on  Broad  Street,  Boston,  he  had  asso- 
ciated with  him,  Paul  Moody,  an  expert  mechanic  from 
Amesbury,  who  later  became  the  manager,  or,  as  it  is  now 
called,  the  agent  of  the  Waltham  mill.  In  a very  few 
years  after  it  was  established  the  success  of  the  company 
made  it  apparent  that  its  interests  should  be  extended,  par- 
ticularly in  another  situation  where  more  water  power  was 
available.  For  some  time  Appleton  and  Jackson  had  been 
looking  for  a suitable  location  but  nothing  had  been  found. 
One  day,  in  1820,  Ezra  Worthen,  a friend  of  Moody’s, 


44 


who  was  connected  with  a manufacturing  establishment  at 
Amesbury,  and  who  had  long  been  impressed  with  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  water  power  of  Pawtucket  Falls  some 
miles  distant  from  Waltham,  called  at  the  mill  of  the  Wal- 
tham Company  to  see  Mr.  Moody.  Patrick  Tracy  Jackson 
happened  to  be  there  at  the  time  and  to  him  Mr.  Worthen 
expressed  a wish  that  the  directors  would  set  up  a mill  in 
some  new  place  and  employ  him  to  conduct  it.  Jackson 
replied  that  this  would  be  done  if  he  would  find  a good 
water  power,  and  immediately  Worthen  took  a piece  of 
chalk  from  his  pocket  and  drew  a map  of  the  Merrimack 
River  and  Canal  on  the  floor.  The  rude  sketch  was  suffi- 
cient to  impress  Jackson;  he  called  on  Appleton  and  in- 
formed him  that  he  had  made  inquiry  and  discovered  that 
the  stock  of  the  Pawtucket  Canal  Company  and  lands 
necessary  for  using  the  water  power  could  be  bought  rea- 
sonably, with  the  result  that,  after  visiting  the  spot,  the  site 
was  eventually  secured. 

The  site  of  Lowell  was  chosen  purely  for  textile  pur- 
poses. The  definite  plan  grew  out  of  its  location  at  avail- 
able water  power.  Other  advantages  and  disadvantages 
were  weighed  over  against  this  matter  of  primary  impor- 
tance. The  practicability  of  textile  manufacturing  at  this 
particular  place  was  the  determining  factor.  It  was  a 
dream  community  before  it  was  a fact,  but  it  became  a real 
community  because  of  its  adaptability  to  the  necessities  of 
the  purpose  for  which  it  was  created. 

These  fundamentals  must  be  kept  in  mind  — that  it 
was  to  be  a community  devoted  to  textile  manufacturing; 
that  it  was  to  grow  by  the  development  of  this  single  in- 
dustry; that  while  its  future  was  still  on  the  knees  of  the 
gods  the  enterprise  if  it  prospered  must  prosper  in  this  one 
way. 

It  was  some  years  before  another  such  community  based 
upon  this  single  manufacturing  idea  was  established,  and, 
long  before  this  the  wisdom  of  the  founders  of  Lowell  was 


45 


amply  justified  by  their  works.  The  genesis  of  the  idea 
goes  hack  to  the  genius  of  a single  man,  who  died  before 
his  idea  had  been  thoroughly  developed  but  who  left  his 
impress  upon  other  men  to  such  a degree  that  much  that 
follows  may  be  directly  traced  to  him. 

So  loyal  to  him  were  his  associates  that  in  due  time  his 
memory  was  perpetuated  in  the  name  of  the  community 
which  he  never  saw  and  about  which  he  personally  only 
vaguely  dreamed. 

The  first  cotton  mill  in  this  section  was  built  in  1813  by 
Captain  Phineas  Whiting  and  Colonel  Josiah  Fletcher,  who 
erected  a large  wooden  building  on  the  Concord  River. 
Little  is  known  about  the  history  of  the  mill,  except  that  in 
five  years  it  was  turned  into  a woolen  mill. 

In  1821,  as  a result  of  Worthen’s  suggestion,  the  stock 
of  the  Pawtucket  Canal  Company  was  bought  by  Jackson 
and  Appleton,  as  well  as  the  farms  which  were  adjacent 
to  the  canal,  400  acres  in  all  at  an  average  price  of  $100 
an  acre.  At  this  time  there  were  less  than  a dozen  houses 
there  with  about  two  hundred  inhabitants  in  all. 

Articles  of  Association,  as  the  form  of  the  new  com- 
pany was  termed,  were  drawn  up  December  1,  1821,  and 
in  February  of  the  following  year  an  act  of  incorporation 
was  granted  to  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company, 
which  began  at  once  active  preparations  to  erect  a factory 
on  the  new  site.  The  directors  of  the  company  were  Kirk 
Boott,  who  was  also  Treasurer  and  Clerk,  and,  later,  the 
Agent  of  the  mill,  Patrick  Tracy  Jackson,  Nathan  and  Wil- 
liam Appleton,  Warren  Dutton,  Israel  Thorndike,  Jr.,  and 
John  W.  Boott.  An  assessment  of  $500  a share  was  made, 
to  be  called  for  by  the  Directors. 

Having  secured  what  they  deemed  sufficient  water  power 
to  supply  not  only  the  mill  they  intended  to  build  at  once, 
but  enough  to  furnish  power  for  many  more,  the  first  step 
of  the  new  company  was  to  make  future  plans  possible  by 
the  enlargement  of  the  canal  and  the  renewal  of  the  locks. 


46 


To  this  end,  the  canal  was  widened  and  deepened  at  a cost 
of  about  $120,000,  while  from  it  a lateral  canal  was  dug 
to  join  the  Concord  River. 

The  site  for  the  first  mill  was  chosen  with  a view  to  mak- 
ing full  use  of  the  thirty-foot  drop  of  the  river  at  Paw- 
tucket Falls.  Building  was  begun  in  1822,  and  by  Sep- 
tember first  of  the  next  year  the  first  wheel  turned,  with  the 
first  return  of  cloth  in  November. 

The  first  cotton  cloth  made  by  the  Merrimack  Manufac- 
turing Company  was  coarse  in  texture  but  thick  and  firm, 
something  like  thin  sail-cloth  and  sold  at  37^c  a yard. 

The  promise  made  to  Ezra  Worthen  when  he  suggested 
that  the  Waltham  Company  should  locate  at  this  place  and 
that  he  should  be  given  charge  of  the  new  mill  was  kept, 
and  he  was  appointed  superintendent.  He  lived  only  a 
year  after  the  plant  was  put  in  operation.  At  the  same 
time  that  the  mill  was  being  erected,  tenements  and  board- 
ing houses  for  the  overseers  and  operatives  were  built. 
Thus,  although  Lowell  had  passed  away  a few  years  previ- 
ously, the  great  plan  formulated  by  him  for  the  protection 
and  comfort  of  his  employes,  which  had  proved  to  be  so 
successful  in  the  Waltham  Mill,  was  actually  introduced 
into  the  new  enterprise.  Here,  again,  were  established 
neat,  well-kept  boarding-houses  with  pleasant  homelike 
customs  and  restrictions;  the  church,  library  and  the  lec- 
ture-room followed.  In  the  words  of  the  Honorable 
Frederic  Greenhalge  who  eulogized  Lowell  fifty  years  after 
the  founding  of  the  city  which  justly  bore  his  name,  “ Re- 
ligion, culture  and  refinement  lent  their  sweet  influences  to 
the  life  of  toil.  Not  this  alone,”  continued  the  orator, 
“but  a new  doctrine  was  proclaimed, — that  the  welfare 
of  the  employed  was  a necessary  factor  to  the  success  of 
the  employer.  They  were  one  in  interest,  one  in  the  loss 
and  one  in  the  gain ; one  in  prosperity  and  one  in  adversity. 
Milton  tells  of  a music  so  divine  that  it  would  create  a soul 
under  the  ribs  of  death.  Francis  Cabot  Lowell  discovered 


47 


and  applied  a principle  that  created  a soul  under  ribs 
of  industrial  economy.” 

Lowell’s  brother-in-law,  Patrick  Tracy  Jackson,  his  old- 
time  friend,  Nathan  Appleton,  and  an  energetic  young  Eng- 
lishman named  Kirk  Boott,  were  the  three  men  to  whom 
it  fell  to  carry  out  the  broad  ideas  of  Lowell  along  social 
and  industrial  lines.  That  they  did  their  work  so  most 
faithfully  and  efficiently  is  a matter  of  record. 

The  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company  prospered 
from  the  beginning.  Operations  were  barely  begun  when 
the  directors  were  authorized  to  petition  for  an  increase 
of  capital  to  $1,200,000.  A new  subscription  of  600 
shares  was  voted  and  a committee  appointed  to  form  a com- 
pany which  became  the  owner  of  all  the  land  and  water 
power  in  Lowell.  This  action  was  deemed  necessary,  inas- 
much as  there  were  mill  privileges  enough  for  several 
independent  factories.  It  seemed  expedient  therefore  that 
one  company  should  have  charge  of  the  disposal  and  sale 
of  the  land  and  water  power,  and  of  the  furnishing  of 
machinery,  without  entering  itself  into  the  manufacture  of 
cotton.  The  old  charter  of  1792  permitted  this  and  under 
the  Act  the  Locks  and  Canals  Company  effected  a reorgan- 
ization, increasing  shares  to  1,200  at  $500  a share,  and 
taking  over  the  whole  property  of  the  Merrimack  Manu- 
facturing Company.  It  then  sold  to  this  company  the  land 
and  water  power  it  now  possesses.  This  arrangement 
made  it  possible  for  a similar  action  on  the  part  of  as  many 
companies  as  the  Locks  and  Canals  Company  could  supply 
with  land  and  water  power. 

The  Locks  and  Canals  Company  also  built  and  rebuilt 
mills,  and  supplied  the  machinery  for  them.  In  time,  this 
company  alone  employed  from  1,000  to  1,200  hands. 

Within  four  years  after  construction  of  the  first  mill  was 
begun,  or  in  1826,  the  population  had  increased  from  the 
original  two  hundred  farmers  and  their  families  who  re- 
sided in  the  vicinity  when  it  was  first  visited  by  Appleton 


4S 


and  Jackson,  to  about  2,500  persons.  Of  this  number,  it 
is  interesting  to  note  that  only  twelve  were  tax-payers,  each 
one  being  assessed  for  about  twenty  dollars.  It  was  in  this 
year,  also,  that  the  part  of  Chelmsford  surrounding  the 
falls  and  which  was  largely  controlled  by  the  Locks  and 
Canals  Company,  was  incorporated  as  a separate  town  and 
named  “ Lowell.” 

It  is  related  that  when  the  act  of  incorporation  was  before 
the  Legislature,  two  names  were  suggested  for  the  new 
town, — Lowell,  after  the  man  who  originated  the  cotton 
mill  as  it  exists  today,  and  Derby,  for  the  town  in  England, 
of  that  name  in  which  were  located  the  greatest  hosiery 
mills  in  the  world.  When  the  matter  was  mentioned  to 
Nathan  Appleton,  a life-long  friend  and  admirer  of  Lowell, 
he  emphatically  said  that  by  all  means  it  should  be  called 
“ Lowell,”  thereby  embodying  the  thought  that  was  later 
expressed  by  one  who  spoke  in  praise  of  the  far-seeing  mer- 
chant and  benefactor,  that  although  “ His  foot  never  trod 
the  streets  of  Lowell,  yet  the  men  whose  hearts  caught  fire 
from  his  thought  decided  that  the  Manchester  of  America 
should  be  his  monument.” 

Chelmsford,  and  the  country  round  about,  was  isolated 
from  its  business  center,  Boston.  In  1793  the  Middlesex 
Canal,  so-called,  was  begun  connecting  the  Merrimack 
River  at  Chelmsford,  above  Pawtucket  Falls,  with  Boston 
Harbor.  This  canal  was  completed  in  1804  and  was  used 
for  freight  and  passengers  until  some  years  after  the  com- 
pletion of  the  railroad  in  1835. 

Lowell,  the  new  town  was  also  connected  with  the  outer 
world  by  stage  coach,  which  remained  the  only  means  of 
travel  by  land  until  the  coming  of  the  railroad,  thirteen 
years  later. 

As  early  as  1830,  Patrick  Tracy  Jackson  was  planning 
for  a railroad  to  connect  Lowell  with  Boston.  His  original 
idea  was  to  have  the  cars  drawn  by  horses  but  he  had  been 
keeping  watch  on  the  experiments  of  George  Stephenson  in 


49 


England  and  no  sooner  had  a steam  engine  been  success- 
fully run  on  the  railroad  from  Manchester  to  Liverpool 
than  Jackson  began  to  correspond  with  inventors  and  me- 
chanics in  that  country  with  a view  to  using  the  new  steam 
cars  on  the  railroad  which  he  hoped  to  build.  The  project 
of  a railroad  with  cars  thus  propelled  by  steam  was  pro- 
nounced radical,  wild  and  visionary,  but  Jackson  went 
ahead,  secured  a charter  and  began  to  build  the  road.  At 
first,  he  estimated  that  the  cost  might  be  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  $100,000,  but,  when  finished,  in  1835,  it  had  cost 
$1,800,000. 

The  first  railroad  engine  was  shipped  from  England  to 
Boston,  where  it  was  taken  apart  and  sent  to  Lowell  by  way 
of  the  Middlesex  Canal.  In  Lowell,  it  was  set  up  again 
and  made  its  first  run  from  that  place  to  Boston.  Accord- 
ing to  those  who  relate  the  story,  this  procedure  was  fol- 
lowed because  Jackson,  the  prime  instigator  of  the  venture, 
was  in  Lowell  and  desired  to  have  a ride  on  the  initial  trip, 
but  the  circumstance  does  not  seem  in  keeping  with  Jack- 
son’s reputation  for  efficiency.  A more  probable  reason 
for  the  act  was  that  he  desired  that  whatever  glory  might 
follow  the  running  of  the  first  train  in  all  America,  should 
be  given  to  the  city  which  was  then  in  its  infancy  but  in  the 
future  of  which  he  had  such  an  intense  faith. 


50 


Chapter  VII 

CHARACTER  OF  THE  OPERATIVES 

For  several  years  after  the  first  mill  was  built  the  town 
grew  at  a rapid  pace.  Laborers  were  brought  from  Boston 
and  other  places  to  build  new  mills  and  they  in  turn  had  to 
have  houses  built  for  them,  so  that,  in  the  language  of  a 
later  day,  Lowell  “ boomed  ” from  the  start.  In  1824,  the 
Merrimack  Company  erected  the  first  schoolhouse  for  the 
children  of  those  employed  in  the  mills,  while  the  following 
year  the  first  church  was  built,  the  Reverend  Theodore 
Edson,  who  for  many  years  thereafter  labored  among  the 
people  and  was  much  beloved,  being  the  first  rector.  Up  to 
this  time  no  public  worship  had  been  held  in  the  vicinity 
since  the  days  when  John  Eliot  preached  to  the  Indians. 
Other  churches  followed,  but  this  first  one  was  unique 
in  that  it  was  the  only  one  to  be  built  by  a corporation  and 
practically  maintained  by  it.  For  a time,  each  operative 
paid  37 ^ cents  each  month  to  its  support,  but  for  several 
years  after  this  practice  was  discontinued  the  corporation 
regularly  bore  the  expense  of  its  upkeep. 

In  thus  early  establishing  the  most  important  elements 
of  society,  the  home,  the  church  and  the  school,  it  is  evident 
that,  although  the  construction  of  the  mills  was  the  main 
issue,  the  founders  of  Lowell  decided  that  in  its  infancy 
the  system  should  be  perpetuated  which  had  been  applied 
with  marked  success  in  Waltham  and  which  was  based  on 
the  new  idea  that  corporations  should  exercise  a paternal 
influence  over  the  lives  of  their  operatives.  To  this  system, 
called  in  the  economic  world  “ The  Lowell  Factory  Sys- 
tem,” belongs  much  of  the  credit  for  the  acknowledged 
superiority  of  the  early  operatives. 

One  of  the  characteristics  of  the  system  was  that  each 
corporation  formed  a community  in  itself,  the  population 
of  which  might  be  roughly  divided  into  six  classes  as  fol- 
lows: 


51 


First,  the  Treasurer,  who  was  the  most  important  man  in 
the  mill  management.  His  duties  carried  him  far  afield. 
He  studied  the  markets,  bought  the  raw  cotton,  sold  the 
finished  product,  and  determined  financial  and  production 
policies. 

The  Agent’s  office  was  sometimes  combined  with  that  of 
the  Treasurer.  Kirk  Boott  thus  acted  as  Treasurer  and 
Agent  for  the  Merrimack  Mills  from  1822-1837.  Cowley, 
in  his  “ History  of  Lowell,”  says  of  him,  “ He  became,  by 
the  general  consent  of  all,  the  man  of  the  place,  so  that  for 
fifteen  years  the  history  of  Lowell  was  little  more  than  the 
biography  of  Kirk  Boott.” 

Second,  the  Agent,  who  was  the  Treasurer’s  manager  on 
the  production  side.  He  usually  lived  somewhat  apart 
from  the  mills  in  a residence  conspicuous  for  its  dignified 
appearance.  In  a quaint  little  book  called,  “ Loom  and 
Spindle,”  the  author  says,  “ The  Agents  of  the  corporations 
were  the  aristocrats  of  the  local  mill  organizations.” 

Third,  the  Superintendent,  who  was  chosen  largely  for 
his  practical  experience  in  the  actual  workings  of  the  mill 
and  for  his  ability  to  deal  with  the  mill  people. 

Fourth,  the  overseers,  who  were  generally  ambitious 
workers  who  had  come  up  through  the  mill.  They  usually 
lived  in  the  end  tenements  of  the  blocks  in  which  the  oper- 
atives boarded  and  supervised  the  conduct  of  these  houses. 

Fifth,  the  operatives,  who  were,  of  course,  the  great 
majority  of  the  population  of  the  community  and  who  were 
commonly  spoken  of  as  “ girls,”  and  “ men.”  They  lived 
in  the  corporation  boarding  houses. 

Sixth,  the  laborers,  whom  Cowley  calls,  “ The  lords  of 
the  spade  and  shovel.”  This  last  class  was  largely  com- 
posed of  the  so-called  foreigners  which  at  that  time  con- 
sisted principally  of  a few  Scotch  and  English  and  a con- 
siderable number  of  Irish.  These  last  segregated  them- 
selves in  a locality  of  their  own  and  often  occupied  houses 
of  their  own  construction.  The  early  histories  contain 


52 


many  instances  of  the  belligerency  and  inability  of  these 
people  to  mix  with  their  fellow  workers. 

At  the  time  the  Lowell  cotton  mills  were  started,  the  era 
of  mechanical  industry  for  women  was  just  beginning  in 
this  country.  Woman,  as  yet,  had  not  been  considered 
seriously  as  a money-earning  member  of  the  community, 
and,  in  consequence,  her  labor  commanded  a small  return. 
A contemporary  of  the  time  later  stated  that  when  she  en- 
tered the  mills  as  a young  girl  there  were  only  seven  occu- 
pations outside  the  home  open  to  her,  none  of  which  af- 
forded more  than  a bare  living,  namely,  teaching,  needle- 
work, keeping  boarders,  factory  labor,  type  setting,  and 
folding  and  stitching  in  book  binderies.  Of  these,  the  fac- 
tory labor  was  the  least  desirable,  partly  because  of  the 
poor  wage  and  also  because  a factory  girl  was  regarded  as 
the  lowest  among  women,  the  result  of  influences  she  was 
subjected  to  in  England  and  France.  To  destroy  this 
prejudice  was  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  proportionately 
high  wage  offered  when  the  Waltham  System  was  first  in- 
stituted, and  that  it  was  successfully  overcome  is  evidenced 
in  the  fact  that  the  mill  operatives  in  Lowell  were  for  many 
years  far  above  the  manufacturing  population  of  any  coun- 
try,— “ a reading,  thinking,  honest,  economical  and  inde- 
pendent class,”  to  use  the  words  of  Cowley  in  his  “ History 
of  Lowell.” 

Within  a short  time  after  the  first  mill  began  to  operate 
the  news  of  opportunities  to  be  found  in  the  mill  town  had 
spread  about  the  country-side.  As  a matter  of  fact,  one 
of  the  first  moves  of  the  company  after  incorporation  was 
to  send  agents  throughout  New  England  to  engage  workers, 
with  the  result  that  finally  they  literally  poured  in  to  the 
town  and  the  Lowell  mills  were  filled  with  blooming  and 
energetic  women,  naturally  intelligent,  quick  witted,  and 
adaptable.  Many,  coming  as  they  did  from  the  far  out- 
lying districts,  were  spoken  of  in  records  of  that  time  as 
being  “ most  odd  in  appearance,  with  peculiar  dialects, 


53 


garbed  usually  in  homespun  dresses  and  with  a shawl  for  a 
head  covering.”  These  oddities  rapidly  disappeared,  how- 
ever, after  association  with  their  more  sophisticated  com- 
panions. 

At  times,  the  girls  would  return  to  their  homes,  for  a 
holiday,  or  for  other  reasons,  and  their  accounts  of  the 
congenial  life  in  the  mill  town  induced  others  to  come, 
particularly  those  who  desired  the  literary  or  social  advan- 
tages as  well  as  work.  They  were  told  of  the  lyceum  lec- 
tures, such  as  were  provided  by  the  Lowell  Institute,  the 
Mechanics  Association,  and  other  organizations  of  equally 
high  repute ; they  learned  that  there  were  circulating  libra- 
ries which  offered  unlimited  opportunities  in  the  way  of 
reading  and  study;  they  heard  of  clubs  and  societies  whose 
activities  opened  up  many  avenues  for  advancement  and 
companionship, — these  were  irresistible  attractions  to  the 
ambitious  and  lonely  country  girls.  There  is  little  wonder 
that,  under  these  circumstances,  they  soon  developed  a 
community  life  unique  in  the  history  of  America. 

The  culture  and  society  provided  thus  assisted  in  obtain- 
ing the  desired  workers,  but  the  relatively  high  wage  it 
was  possible  to  earn  of  course  entered  largely  into  the  ques- 
tion. Numbers  of  dependent  women,  unmarried  or  wid- 
owed, who  had  never  been  self-sustaining,  were  given  the 
opportunity  of  escaping  the  position  of  being  a “ poor  rela- 
tion ” and  they  regarded  it  as  little  less  than  heaven-sent. 
Up  to  this  time,  a lack  of  profitable  employment  for  women 
made  it  necessary  that  they  be  maintained  by  the  men  of 
the  family,  but  the  young  men  of  New  England  were  going 
west  and  to  the  women  remaining  at  home  the  opening  of 
factories  was  a welcome  event,  affording  as  it  did  a means 
of  honorable  livelihood.  With  a great  many  women,  gen- 
tility had  prevented  them  from  entering  the  few  other  voca- 
tions open  to  them  at  that  time,  but  in  the  mill  a comfortable 
home  life  was  assured  them  and  the  considerate  treatment 
by  employers  preserved  their  feeling  of  respectful  equality. 


54 


They  were  not  driven  in  any  sense,  and,  as  quaintly  phrased 
by  one  who  had  spent  her  girlhood  in  the  mills,  “ it  was  a 
knowledge  of  antecedents  that  safeguarded  liberties.” 

It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  state  that  with  this  heritage 
of  gentle  birth,  the  qualities  of  frugality  and  thrift,  in- 
dustry and  economy  were  included.  It  was  the  common 
custom  on  the  first  day  of  the  month,  after  paying  the  board 
bill  of  $1.25  a week,  for  the  girls  to  put  the  balance  of  their 
wages  in  the  savings  bank,  where  it  was  allowed  to  accumu- 
late until  enough  for  some  desired  object  had  been  ob- 
tained. In  1840,  978  factory  girls  were  depositors  in  the 
Lowell  Institution  for  Savings,  with  deposits  averaging 
$100  each.  A few  years  later,  it  was  estimated  that  two- 
thirds  of  the  deposits  in  savings  banks  in  Lowell  were  made 
by  mill  operatives. 

The  process  of  entering  the  mill  amounted  almost  to  a 
ceremony.  In  addition  to  a careful  gathering  of  vital 
statistics,  each  one  was  obliged  to  sign  a “ Regulation 
Paper,”  which  demanded,  among  other  things,  “ regular 
attendance  at  some  place  of  worship.”  Strict  morality 
was,  of  course,  a stern  requirement;  the  slightest  infringe- 
ment brought  instant  dismissal,  more  to  be  dreaded  than 
punishment,  as  the  fact  that  one  had  been  discharged  made 
it  practically  impossible  to  secure  employment  in  another 
mill. 

With  all  these  qualities  — refinement,  superior  mental 
ability,  industry  — the  girls  possessed  the  inestimable  ben- 
efit of  good  health.  There  is  no  evidence  that,  coming 
from  the  country  to  take  up  the  unaccustomed  duties  of  an 
indoor  life,  work  in  the  mills  was  ever  considered  to  be 
inimical  to  their  health.  This  may  have  been  due,  in  part 
at  least  to  the  fact  that  they  brought  with  them  an  inher- 
itance of  sound  bodies  and  endurance,  together  with  the 
regular  and  simple  habits  of  their  previous  country  life. 
The  plain  and  substantial  food  provided  for  them,  also 
contributed  in  large  measure  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
rugged  health  for  which  they  were  noted. 


55 


It  is  very  difficult  to  obtain  mortality  statistics  which 
would  include  this  particular  group  of  workers,  as  in  that 
early  day  such  records  were  not  kept.  In  his  history  of 
Lowell,  however,  Cowley  states  that  in  1828  the  town  con- 
tained about  fifteen  hundred  mill  operatives,  and  that  there 
had  not  been  a single  death  among  them  during  the  year. 

In  1834,  M.  Chevalier,  French  Political  Economist,  sent 
to  this  country  by  M.  Thiers,  Minister  of  the  Interior  to 
Louis  Philippe,  to  inspect  the  public  works  of  America, 
visited  Lowell.  He  was  so  pleased  with  the  factories  and 
factory  girls  that  thirty  years  later,  in  1866,  when  he  was 
a member  of  the  Committee  charged  with  the  organization 
of  the  Exposition  of  1867,  he  wrote  to  Senator  Sumner  ask- 
ing his  aid  in  having  a group  of  these  girls  sent  to  Paris 
with  their  looms,  so  that  they  might  be  seen  at  work  in 
Paris. 

M.  Chevalier  also  gives  the  Merrimack  wage  scale  as  of 
May,  1834: 

Picking  and  Carding 

Spinning 
Weaving 

Warping  and  Sizing 
Cloth  Room 

The  history  of  Lowell  in  no  sense  can  be  considered  as 
identical  with  that  of  other  manufacturing  places  in  New 
England,  because  here,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
America,  if  not  in  the  world,  were  gathered  together  a large 
number  of  factory  people  who  were  actively  interested  in 
their  own  mental  cultivation.  Emerson  once  said  that  the 
children  of  New  England  between  1820  and  1840  were 
“ born  with  knives  in  their  brains,”  and  certainly  girls  with 
enough  ability  to  conduct  a magazine  (The  Lowell  Offer- 


{3.00  Dollars  per  week 
3.10 
2.78 
3.00 
I 3.10 
1 3.12 
I 3.45 
{ 4.00 
3.12 


56 


ing)  which  attained  a world-wide  popularity,  could  not  be 
regarded  as  other  than  keen  and  mentally  alert.  There  is 
an  instance  of  one  of  the  managers  having  made  an  examin- 
ation of  the  girls  in  his  mill,  and  out  of  800  there  were  only 
43  who  could  not  write  their  names  legibly.  Of  these,  he 
further  stated,  42  were  not  native  Americans.  Night 
schools  started  almost  as  soon  as  the  mills  were  opened  and 
they  were  always  well  filled.  Some  of  them  were  devoted 
to  studies  of  a special  nature. 

The  girls  were  exceptional  in  their  desire  to  attain  mental 
improvement.  They  were  omniverous  readers.  At  the 
boarding  houses  they  subscribed  for  newspapers  and  other 
periodicals,  which  were  carefully  read  and  later  discussed. 
All  the  topics  of  the  day, — the  Mexican  War,  extension  of 
slave  property,  French  communism,  these  and  others  were 
debated  in  the  forum  of  the  boarding  house  sitting-room  or 
in  the  rest  intervals  of  their  work.  Nearby,  the  Brook 
Farm  Community  had  been  established  and  its  progress 
was  watched  with  much  curiosity.  Many  books  also  were 
read  and  debated.  It  is  recorded  that  when  they  were  not 
permitted  to  take  any  reading  matter  into  the  mill,  the  girls 
took  clippings,  copies  of  poems,  etc.,  and  pasted  them  on 
the  windows  for  perusal  in  their  spare  moments. 

The  Lecture  Courses  were  a great  attraction  to  the  oper- 
atives, with  lectures  such  as  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  George  William  Curtis,  John  B.  Gough,  Art- 
emas  Ward,  J.  G.  Holland,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and 
others  equally  noted  at  that  time. 

Professor  Peabody  of  Harvard  University,  who  used  to 
lecture  every  winter  for  the  Lowell  Lyceum,  in  an  article 
written  for  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  said  that  at  his  lec- 
tures the  hall  was  always  crowded  and  that  four- fifths 
of  the  audience  were  factory  girls.  When  he  entered,  al- 
most every  girl  was  intently  reading,  but  when  he  rose  to 
begin  the  lecture,  the  book  was  laid  aside  and  paper  and 
pencil  taken  instead.  “ There  were  very  few  who  did  not 


57 


carry  home  full  notes  of  what  they  had  heard,”  he  wrote, 
adding,  “ I have  never  seen  anywhere  so  assiduous  note- 
taking,— no,  not  even  in  a college  class,  as  in  that  assembly 
of  young  women,  laboring  for  their  subsistence.” 

The  impression  left  with  others,  both  lecturers  and  visit- 
ors, was  equally  favorable.  Harriet  Martineau,  in  a letter 
to  a contemporary,  stated  that  she  accompanied  Emerson 
once  to  a lecture  given  by  him  to  the  factory  people  in  a 
winter  course  on  historical  biography.  The  fact  that  the 
audience,  composed  of  girls  who  worked  70  hours  a week, 
showed  no  sign  of  weariness  but  was  on  the  contrary  wake- 
ful and  interested,  was  a matter  of  deep  interest  to  her. 
“ Minds  kept  fresh,  strong  and  free  by  knowledge  and 
power  of  thought  accounted  for  the  fact  that  they  were  not 
worn  and  depressed  under  labors.” 

Dickens  in  his  “ American  Notes  ” published  after  a tour 
of  the  United  States  in  the  early  forties,  writes  at  some 
length  of  a visit  made  to  Lowell  and  its  cotton  mills.  He 
was  particularly  struck  by  the  well-dressed,  clean  and 
healthy  appearance  of  the  girls,  who  had  “ the  manners  of 
young  women,  not  of  degraded  brutes  of  burden,”  and  went 
on  to  state  other  facts,  three  of  which  “ will  startle  a large 
class  of  readers  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.”  The  first  was 
that  there  were  pianos  in  many  of  the  boarding  houses. 
Second,  nearly  all  the  operatives  were  subscribers  to  cir- 
culating libraries,  and,  third,  a periodical  was  being  edited, 
the  original  articles  for  which  were  written  exclusively  by 
girls  actively  employed  in  the  mills. 

Other  visitors  to  Lowell  recorded  their  impressions  — 
among  them,  Anthony  Trollope,  who  afterward  said  that 
the  girls  were  infinitely  superior  to  those  employed  in  the 
cotton  mills  in  England;  David  Crockett,  who  stated,  in  his 
characteristic  manner,  that  “ he  wanted  to  see  how  it  was 
that  these  Northerners  could  buy  our  cotton,  and  carry  it 
home,  manufacture  it,  bring  it  back  and  sell  it  for  half 
nothing,  and  in  the  meantime  live  well  and  make  money  be- 


58 


side.”  Going  among  the  factories  as  the  dinner  bells  were 
ringing  and  “ folks  pouring  out  of  doors  like  bees  out  of 
a gum,”  he  noted  that  the  girls  were  all  well-dressed  and 
lively,  looking  as  if  they  were  coming  from  “ a quilting 
frolic.” 

General  Jackson  visited  Lowell  in  1833,  and  as  part  of 
the  program  in  his  honor,  a procession  was  arranged  in 
which  the  mills’  girls  had  a prominent  place.  About  2,500 
paraded,  dressed  in  white  and  carrying  white  parasols. 
The  sight  of  this  “ two  miles  of  girls  ” made  a great  im- 
pression on  Jackson.  It  is  also  related  that  the  announce- 
ment that  the  girls  were  to  march  had  the  effect  of  attracting 
about  as  many  people  as  did  Jackson  himself. 


59 


Chapter  VIII 


DESCRIPTION  OF  A LOWELL  CORPORATION 
AT  THIS  PERIOD 

A characteristic  of  the  Lowell  Factory  System  was  the 
design  for  the  control  of  the  boarding  houses  and  their  in- 
mates, as  instituted  in  the  Waltham  Manufacturing  Com- 
pany by  Francis  Cabot  Lowell.  These  boarding  houses 
were  long  blocks  of  brick  buildings,  situated  on  the  banks 
of  the  river,  or  of  the  canal,  a few  rods  from  the  mills  at 
right  angles  to  them,  and  containing  a sufficient  number  of 
tenements,  as  they  were  called,  to  accommodate  the  opera- 
tives employed  by  the  corporation.  Between  the  boarding 
houses  and  the  mill  there  was  generally  a long,  one-story 
brick  building  containing  the  Counting  Room,  Superinten- 
dent’s and  Clerk’s  rooms  and  store  rooms.  The  enclosure 
which  this  arrangement  of  structures  formed  and  upon 
which  all  of  the  buildings  opened  was  called  the  mill  yard. 
The  only  access  to  this  yard  was  through  the  counting  room 
and  in  full  view  of  those  whose  business  it  was  to  see  that 
only  those  who  belonged  there  came  upon  the  premises. 
Furthermore,  the  location  of  the  Superintendent’s  room 
gave  him  an  unobstructed  view.  On  one  side  were  the 
boarding  houses,  occupied  only  by  known  and  approved 
tenants;  on  the  other  side  were  the  mills,  in  each  room  of 
which  there  was  a carefully  selected  overseer  who  was  held 
responsible  for  the  work,  good  order  and  proper  manage- 
ment of  his  room.  In  many  cases,  the  agents  and  overseers 
were  members  and  sometimes  deacons  of  the  church,  or,  as 
frequently  happened,  Sunday  School  teachers  of  the  girls 
employed  under  them.  The  interest  in  their  welfare  which 
this  association,  apart  from  the  mill,  provided  was  of  ines- 
timable benefit,  and,  from  a utilitarian  point  of  view,  it 
must  have  caused  the  girls  to  feel  a greater  interest  in  their 
work. 


60 


Each  of  the  long  blocks  of  boarding  houses  was  divided 
into  six  or  eight  tenements,  usually  two  and  one-half  stories 
high.  All  were  furnished  with  water,  yards  and  outbuild- 
ings, and  were  kept  clean  and  well  painted.  Each  spring 
the  buildings  were  whitewashed  and  repaired  at  the  expense 
of  the  corporation. 

The  housekeeper  was  generally  a middle-aged  woman, 
often  a widow,  who  was  selected  with  the  utmost  care.  A 
parlor  for  the  housekeeper  was  provided,  as  well  as  a sit- 
ting room  for  the  boarders.  The  rest  of  the  house  was  di- 
vided into  sleeping  rooms,  in  each  of  which  were  lodged 
two,  four,  or  six  persons. 

Separate  houses  were  maintained  for  male  and  female 
operatives.  In  the  case  of  men  residence  in  a corporation 
house  was  optional.  Every  woman,  however,  when  secur- 
ing employment  was  required  to  sign  the  so-called  “ Regu- 
lation Paper,”  which  stipulated  that  she  should  live  in  a 
company  boarding  house. 

The  doors  of  these  boarding  houses  were  closed  at  ten 
o’clock  in  the  evening,  all  occupants  having  to  be  in-doors 
by  that  time  unless  special  permission  for  a later  hour  had 
been  obtained. 

Board  was  obtained  at  a very  nominal  rate, — $1.25  per 
week  for  women  and  $1.75  for  men.  Earnings  at  this  time 
amounted  to  between  $3.00  and  $4.00  a week.  Operatives 
entering  the  mill  at  once  received  pay,  usually  55c  per 
week  besides  board.  In  a few  months  they  would  receive 
from  $1.00  to  $1.50.  The  average  pay  at  this  time  was 
$1.93  per  week  which  with  board  at  $1.25  amounted  to 
$3.18.  Some,  however,  earned  $3.00  to  $4.00  above  this 
amount.  The  method  of  payment  in  use  required  that  the 
amount  for  board  should  be  deducted  from  the  pay  envel- 
ope on  pay  day  which  occurred  once  a month. 

Hours  of  labor  averaged  12^4  a day,  or  73*4  a week  of 
six  days.  As  a rule,  however,  the  actual  hours  were  about 
10y2  a day,  or  63  a week,  as  tending  the  machinery  allowed 


61 


some  momenta  each  hour  for  relaxation.  Four  holidays 
were  granted  during  the  year, — Fast  Day,  Fourth  of  July, 
Thanksgiving  and  Christmas. 

Lamps  were  never  lighted  in  the  boarding  houses  on 
Saturday  evening,  as  the  operatives  were  supposed  to  retire 
early  in  preparation  for  the  Sabbath. 

There  was  no  intention  on  the  part  of  the  corporation  to 
secure  profit  from  the  houses,  and  in  consequence  the  rents 
were  very  low,  being  about  one-half  to  one-third  of  what 
similar  houses  rented  for  elsewhere  in  the  city.  When  not 
fully  occupied,  or  in  other  times  of  pressure,  a part  and 
even  the  whole  of  the  rent  has  been  known  to  be  remitted. 
At  such  times  they  became  a source  of  expense  to  the  corpo- 
ration, but,  on  the  whole,  the  advantages  of  supervision  and 
the  wholesome  effect  upon  the  operatives  was  felt  to  be 
more  than  an  equivalent  for  this  loss.  Indeed,  the  influ- 
ence which  this  system  of  boarding  houses  exerted  upon  the 
good  order  and  morals  of  the  inhabitants,  was,  by  all  ac- 
counts, very  great.  It  enabled  the  superintendent  to  extend 
his  care  and  influence  over  the  operatives  not  only  while 
they  were  in  the  mill  but  while  they  were  away  from  it. 
And,  furthermore,  the  comfortable  environment  offered, 
combined  with  the  inducement  of  a good  wage,  attracted 
a very  desirable  class  of  operatives  who  eventually  did 
much  to  bring  success  to  the  industry. 

At  the  time  that  these  boarding  houses  were  in  successful 
operation  Dr.  Elisha  Bartlett,  the  first  mayor  of  Lowell,  as 
well  as  a practising  physician  in  that  town  for  many  years 
commented  as  follows: — 

“ The  general  and  comparative  good  health  of  the 
girls  employed  in  the  mills  here,  and  their  freedom 
from  serious  disease,  have  long  been  subjects  of  com- 
mon remark  among  our  most  intelligent  and  experi- 
enced physicians.  The  manufacturing  population  of 
this  city  is  the  healthiest  portion  of  the  population 
. They  are  but  little  exposed  to  many  of  the 


62 


strongest  and  most  prolific  causes  of  disease,  and  very 
many  of  the  circumstances  which  surround  them  are 
of  the  most  favorable  character.  They  are  regular 
in  their  habits.  They  are  early  up  and  early  to  bed. 
Their  fare  is  plain,  substantial  and  good,  and  their 
labor  is  sufficiently  active  and  light  to  avoid  the  two 
evils  that  arise  from  indolence  and  over-exertion. 
They  are  but  little  exposed  to  the  sudden  vicissitudes 
of  the  seasons  and  they  are  very  generally  free  from 
anxious  and  depressing  cares.” 

In  1857,  Senator  Thomas  H.  Benton  visited  the  mills  at 
Lowell,  spending  the  best  part  of  a day  in  them.  The  same 
evening  he  made  an  address  in  the  town,  and,  in  speaking 
of  the  corporation  boarding  houses,  said,  that  he  had  found 
the  operatives  as  comfortably  and  handsomely  situated  as 
members  of  Congress  in  Washington.  “ They  live  in  large, 
stately,  elegant  houses,”  he  said.  “ You  are  shown  into  a 
parlor  with  the  same  kind  of  furniture  as  found  in  a Con- 
gressmen’s boarding  house  in  Washington,  and  the  tables 
are  covered  with  better  and  more  books  than  usually  found 
in  the  Congressmen’s  parlor.”  With  due  allowance  for 
platform  ardor,  this  might  be  considered  as  a splendid 
testimonial  to  the  high  character  of  the  boarding  houses, 
particularly  when  it  is  remembered  that  he  was  speaking  in 
the  place  where  they  were  located  and  to  an  audience 
largely  composed,  no  doubt,  of  those  who  occupied  them. 

Each  of  the  boarding  houses  was  considered  to  be  a 
community  in  itself,  a place  where  numbers  of  young  wom- 
en, coming  from  all  parts  of  New  England,  met,  and  lived 
together.  In  their  hours  of  relaxation  all  the  duties  com- 
monly performed  in  the  home  were  carried  on, — letter 
writing,  studies,  reading  and  sewing.  Meeting  as  they  did 
in  a common  sitting  room,  there  was  much  discussion  on 
religious  and  social  subjects,  as  well  as  on  more  trivial 
matters. 

There  remains  a clear  record  that  the  opportunties  for 


63 


helpful  advice  and  for  cooperation  in  work  and  play,  in- 
stilled in  these  young  women  by  this  community  life,  were 
of  untold  benefit.  In  later  years,  several  of  them  became 
well  known  in  literary  and  other  walks  of  public  life.  Lucy 
Larcom,the  poet,  and  her  sister  Emmeline,  who  also  became 
a writer,  began  to  work  in  the  mills  at  a very  early  age,  their 
mother,  who  had  been  left  a widow,  having  become  the  mis- 
tress of  one  of  the  boarding  houses  in  order  that  she  might 
be  able  to  keep  her  family  together.  Harriet  H.  Robinson, 
a pioneer  of  Women’s  Suffrage  and  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  General  Federation  of  Women’s  Clubs,  wrote  of  her 
experiences  as  a mill  girl;  Margaret  Foley,  a sculptor  and 
cameo  cutter,  famed  for  the  portraits  of  Sumner,  Longfel- 
low and  Bryant  which  she  later  made;  Harriet  Curtis,  a 
writer  and  Eliza  Jane  Cate,  also  never  failed  to  refer  with 
a measure  of  pride  to  their  early  years  in  the  mills. 


64 


Chapter  IX 


THE  LOWELL  OFFERING 

Mention  has  been  made  in  the  foregoing  pages  of  a mag- 
azine published  by  the  mill  operatives  which  created  a great 
deal  of  comment  in  the  literary  world  of  that  time.  This 
periodical  was  “ The  Lowell  Offering,”  which  attained  dis- 
tinction not  only  for  its  worth  and  because  it  was  the  first 
work  written  by  factory  girls,  but  also  because  it  was  the 
first  magazine  in  the  world  to  be  written  exclusively  by 
women. 

According  to  an  editorial  in  a Lowell  newspaper  in  1842, 
the  origin  of  the  Offering  was  as  follows: — Some  time 
previously  the  pastor  of  the  Second  Universalist  Church  es- 
tablished an  Improvement  Circle,  composed  of  the  girls  in 
the  various  mills,  which  was  evidently  for  social  and  other 
purposes.  At  the  meetings,  original  articles  were  read,  and, 
to  overcome  the  diffidence  naturally  expected  which  might 
hinder  some  from  making  contribution  to  the  weekly  pro- 
grams, a box  was  provided  in  which  articles,  signed  only 
with  initials,  were  placed.  The  result  was  such  a variety  of 
material  of  so  interesting  a nature,  that  a “ little  book,”  was 
compiled  which  later  developed  into'-a  periodical,  edited 
and  issued  solely  by  the  girls.  The  first  number  was  issued 
in  1840;  the  last  in  1849,  (seven  volumes  in  all)  when  the 
paper  was  discontinued  from  lack  of  financial  support. 

The  first  secretary  of  the  Improvement  Circle  was  Em- 
meline Larcom,  while  her  sister,  Lucy,  was  the  most  famous 
of  the  group  of  New  England  writers  who  began  their  work 
by  contributing  to  the  Offering. 

Instantly,  this  unique  publication  was  welcomed  as  a 
pleasant  surprise,  and  subscriptions  came  in  from  all  over 
the  country. 

An  endorsement  of  this  magazine,  written  by  the  editor 
of  the  North  American  Review,  John  G.  Palfrey,  was  as 
follows: — 


65 


“ Many  of  the  articles  are  such  as  to  satisfy  the 
reader  at  once,  that  if  he  has  only  taken  up  the  Offer- 
ing as  a phenomenon,  and  not  as  what  may  bear  criti- 
cism and  reward  perusal,  he  has  but  to  own  his  error, 
and  dismiss  his  condescension  as  soon  as  may  be.” 

Charles  Dickens  in  his  “ American  Notes  ” says  — 

“ I brought  away  from  Lowell  400  solid  pages  (Of- 
fering) which  I have  read  from  beginning  to  end.  Of 
the  merits  of  the  Lowell  Offering,  as  a literary  produc- 
tion, I will  only  observe  — putting  out  of  sight  the 
fact  of  the  articles  having  been  written  by  these  girls 
after  the  arduous  hours  of  the  day  — that  it  will  com- 
pare advantageously  with  a great  many  English  an- 
nuals.” 

Professor  Felton,  of  Harvard  University,  while  in  Paris 
attending  a course  of  lectures  on  English  Literature  by  Phil- 
arte  Chastles,  heard  an  entire  lecture  on  the  history  and 
literary  merits  of  the  Offering,  while  in  1834,  the  Minister 
of  the  Interior  in  France  showed  a bound  volume  of  this 
same  publication  to  the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies  as  an 
example  of  what  working  women  may  do  for  themselves  in 
a Republic. 

In  England,  some  of  the  articles  from  “ The  Offering  ” 
were  collected  and  issued  in  book  form,  entitled,  “ Mind 
Amongst  the  Spindles,  a Selection  from  the  Lowell  Offer- 
ing.” While  in  this  country  on  a visit,  the  editor  of  the 
book  was  given  a number  of  copies  of  The  Offering,  about 
eight  hundred  pages  in  all,  the  reading  of  which  he  freely 
stated  he  viewed  with  distaste.  He  confessed,  however, 
that  he  did  not  lay  them  aside  until  they  were  wholly  read, 
and  when  he  did  so  it  was  with  the  conviction  that  they  con- 
tained real  merit,  and  were  worthy  of  wider  circulation. 
In  preparing  them  for  publication,  he  wrote  an  introduc- 
tion, in  which  he  outlined  the  qualities  which  struck  him 
most,  as  follows:— 

First,  “ Entire  absence  of  pretension  in  writers  to  be  what 


66 


they  were  not.  Girls  they  called  themselves,  not 
ladies.  No  affectations  of  gentility,  consequently  they 
were  free  from  vulgarity.  4 They  feel  and  proclaim 
....  think  it  an  honor  to  labor  with  their  hands.’  ” 

Second,  “ The  papers  showed  the  influences  under  which 
they  had  been  brought  up.  Piety,  thoughts  of  home, 
mother’s  love,  father’s  labor,  all  constantly  de- 
scribed.” 

Third,  Patriotism  in  their  tone. 

Fourth,  Like  all  writers  of  good  natural  taste  not  perverted 
into  imitators,  they  perceived  the  interest  in  describing 
what  they  had  witnessed. 

Fifth,  Although  some  things  were  “ tedious,  sentimental  and 
labored,”  the  editor  felt  that  it  would  have  been  diffi- 
cult for  a large  body  of  contributors  to  produce  so 
much  matter  with  so  little  of  bad  taste.  They  were 
familiar  with  good  composition  and  knew  somewhat 
of  ancient  and  modern  history. 


67 


Chapter  X 


ABANDONMENT  OF  THE  CORPORATION 
BOARDING  HOUSES 

The  corporation  boarding  houses  as  briefly  described  in 
the  foregoing  pages  endured  from  1822  when  the  Merri- 
mack Manufacturing  Company  was  founded,  up  to  the 
early  nineties,  a matter  of  nearly  seventy  years.  During 
all  this  time,  the  corporations  had  particularly  interested 
themselves  in  providing  homes  for  employes  where  the  ex- 
pense of  board  and  lodging  would  be  less  than  prevailing 
rates  in  privately  owned  houses.  The  first  outward  indica- 
tion of  a breakdown  of  the  system  came  when  an  association 
of  boarding  house  keepers,  finding  it  difficult,  with  the  ris- 
ing cost  of  living,  to  maintain  the  low  prices  hitherto  pre- 
vailing, met  to  consider  an  advance  to  an  equality  with  the 
other  boarding  houses  in  the  city.  But,  for  some  time 
before  this  step  was  taken,  premonitory  signs  of  the  decline 
were  seen  in  the  gradual  change  in  the  character  of  the 
operatives.  This  change  began  about  1882  when  the  na- 
tive New  Englanders,  together  with  increasing  numbers  of 
French  Canadians,  Irish  and  English,  many  of  them  now 
naturalized,  began  to  be  displaced  by  foreigners.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  the  sleeping  rooms  of  the  boarding 
houses  accommodated  from  two  to  six  persons,  and  if  all 
were  of  the  same  social  habits,  this  arrangement  was  doubt- 
less very  pleasant.  Different  nationalities,  however,  with 
their  varying  standards  could  not  associate  harmoniously  in 
such  a restricted  area  and  so  more  and  more  the  operatives, 
particularly  those  of  foreign  birth,  tended  to  find  their  liv- 
ing quarters  outside  the  corporation  houses,  preferably  in 
districts  almost  wholly  settled  by  those  of  their  own  race. 
Furthermore,  the  American  girls  had  always  subjected 
themselves  to  the  discipline  required,  and  the  fact  that  the 
newcomers  were  of  a type  to  resent  rules,  especially  the  one 
which  required  them  to  take  all  of  their  meals  in  the  house. 


68 


made  them  undesirable  as  boarders.  The  system  of  deduct- 
ing board  money  from  the  monthly  wage  also  did  not  please 
them,  as  they  greatly  preferred  “ to  have  all  their  money  in 
their  pay  envelopes.” 

In  view  of  the  dislike  which  the  operatives,  generally, 
now  felt  toward  the  “ Lowell  system,”  the  corporations 
agreed  that  the  houses  had  outlived  their  usefulness  and 
opportunities  to  sell  them  were  welcomed.  A former  agent 
of  the  Massachusetts  Cotton  Mills,  William  S.  Southworth, 
explained  the  situation  in  a very  few  words,  by  saying, 
“ When  a corporation  could  not  longer  see  any  advantage 
to  itself  in  furnishing  houses,  when  its  best  men  refused  to 
live  near  the  mills,  and  the  most  desirable  of  the  ordinary 
workers  preferred  to  live  elsewhere  than  in  the  tenements 
and  boarding  houses  offered  them,  the  whole  system  was 
ready  for  abandonment.” 

When  English-speaking  operatives  moved  out  of  the  cor- 
poration boarding  houses  and  tenements  to  suburbs,  and 
outlying  districts,  these  boarding  houses  were  sold  to  priv- 
ate owners.  The  result  was  a great  increase  in  rents,  as 
well  as  in  the  price  of  board  and  lodging,  and  several  fam- 
ilies crowded  into  houses  or  apartments  formerly  occupied 
by  only  one  family. 

Emphasis  must  be  laid  on  the  fact  that  primarily  the 
reason  for  these  changes  of  living  was  a change  in  economic 
conditions.  As  earlier  stated,  this  system  afforded  no 
profit  to  the  mills,  and,  indeed,  added  considerably  to  the 
overhead  expenses.  It  was  entered  into  solely  as  an  ex- 
pression of  a philanthropic  purpose,  and  it  was  discontin- 
ued because  the  operatives,  and  not  the  mills,  so  desired. 

A similar  situation  obtains  in  the  south  today,  and,  al- 
though I am  not  a prophet  nor  the  son  of  a prophet,  I ven- 
ture to  say  that  in  the  course  of  time  the  “ Lowell  system  ” 
now  practically  adopted  by  the  Southern  Mills  will  pass 
through  a similar  experience  and  the  day  will  come  when 
the  southern  operatives  will  also  demand  “ all  our  money  in 
the  pay  envelopes.” 


69 


Chapter  XI 


CHANGE  IN  CHARACTER  OF  THE  OPERATIVES 

While  the  official  history  of  immigration  to  this  country 
begins  in  1820,  or  shortly  before  the  first  mill  was  started 
in  Lowell,  it  was  not  until  some  years  later,  or  about  1827, 
following  a commercial  depression  in  England,  that  for- 
eigners began  to  displace  to  any  extent  the  native  New 
Englanders  in  the  mills.  By  1847,  thirty  times  as  many 
came  as  in  1820.  Undoubtedly  the  influx  of  different  peo- 
ples, succeeding  the  era  when  only  native  help  was  em- 
ployed, brought  about  the  breaking  up  of  the  boarding 
houses,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  and  the  gradual  decline  of 
the  community  life  heretofore  existent.  Historians  of 
Lowell  and  other  mill  towns  in  New  England  agree  in  the 
opinion  that  the  period  when  the  employes  were  of  one  race 
was  far  better  than  later  when  immigration  had  destroyed 
the  homogeneousness  of  the  population. 

Cowley,  in  his  History  of  Lowell,  states  that  up  to  1856, 
no  permanent  operative  population  existed  in  Lowell. 
“ While  operatives  are  bom  and  bred  in  rural  homes,  work 
a few  years  in  the  mills,  and  then  return  to  agricultural 
pursuits,  the  interests  of  Lowell  remain  secure,”  adding 
that  this  fact  alone  had  saved  the  city  from  the  evils  of  vice 
and  ignorance,  demoralization  and  misery,  which  predom- 
inated in  manufacturing  cities  of  Europe. 

The  first  immigrants  were  all  from  Western  Europe; 
those  from  Eastern  Europe  did  not  begin  to  come  until 
1855;  in  another  decade  the  composition  of  the  mill  popu- 
lation began  to  show  a material  change  from  Western  to 
Eastern  Europeans. 

Practically  no  Irish  were  in  Lowell  before  1822,  when 
about  thirty  walked  from  Charlestown  in  search  of  work. 
They  were  met  by  Kirk  Boott  and  set  to  work  on  the  new 
canal  then  being  built.  Others  followed  and  became  oper- 
atives and  laborers  in  the  mills.  Coburn  says  that  “ they 


70 


brought  in  a racial  stock  from  which  some  of  the  best  men 
and  women  of  the  present  generation  in  Lowell  are  de- 
scended.” 

It  was  not  until  1852,  when  the  cotton  industry  was  recov- 
ering from  a year  or  two  of  depression,  that  the  Irish  began 
to  arrive  to  any  extent  from  their  native  land.  Hard  times  in 
Ireland,  beginning  about  1846  and  culminating  in  the  fam- 
ine of  1854,  resulted  in  their  coming  in  numbers,  nearly 
one-half  of  the  total  immigration  during  the  period  being 
Irish.  At  the  same  time,  with  many  spindles  idle  in  the 
cotton  mills  of  New  England,  the  native  women  operatives 
returned  to  their  country  homes  by  thousands.  Many  of 
them  never  came  back  to  the  mills.  Their  places  were 
filled  with  the  Irish  immigrants.  Then,  “ the  mills  are 
filled  up  with  Irish  help,”  was  the  complaint.  With  the 
Irish,  the  corporations  were  able  to  continue  wages  at  the 
low  point  established  during  the  period  of  overproduction, 
while,  in  them,  they  also  secured  a more  subservient  force 
of  operatives  and  one  better  fitted  physically  to  endure  the 
strain  of  the  work. 

As  the  Irish  displaced  the  native  Americans,  they  in  turn 
were  later  displaced  by  another  group,  the  French  Cana- 
dians, who  began  to  come  about  1865.  At  one  time  it 
seemed  likely  that  they  would  replace  all  other  operatives 
in  the  textile  mills  of  New  England.  Yet,  in  time,  they 
tended  more  and  more  to  return  to  their  homes  in  Canada, 
having  saved  enough  money  to  buy  farms  and  live  in  com- 
parative affluence.  With  the  coming  of  the  peoples  from 
Eastern  Europe  the  emigration  from  Canada  slackened. 

Relatively  few  English  ever  came  to  Lowell.  Those  who 
did  arrive  were  a satisfactory  and  high-grade  class  of  oper- 
atives. When  the  Merrimack  Company  was  established, 
an  attempt  was  made  to  manufacture  calico.  It  was  found 
impossible,  however,  to  get  satisfactory  results  in  dyeing 
and  printing,  and,  as  this  art  was  practised  extensively  in 
England,  it  was  decided  to  send  to  that  country  and  secure 


71 


experienced  workers.  An  agreement  was  made  with  them 
and  they  came  to  Lowell  and  lodged  in  a long,  low  block  of 
houses  of  the  Merrimack  Corporation  called  the  English 
Row.  It  is  related  that  when  they  arrived  they  were  not 
satisfied  with  the  wages,  which  they  claimed  were  not  ac- 
cording to  agreement,  and  they  refused  to  go  to  work.  They 
finally  left  the  town  for  Boston  in  a large  wagon  with  a 
band  of  music.  The  agent  of  the  mill  went  after  them  and 
made  terms  and  they  returned,  establishing  in  Lowell  the 
art  of  calico  printing  as  it  exists  in  the  mills.  John  D. 
Prince  was  the  first  superintendent  of  printing.  Most  of 
the  English  immigrants  went  to  southern  New  England  tex- 
tile centers  where  better  opportunities  were  given  them  in 
the  fine  goods  mills. 

In  a study  of  the  Greeks  in  the  United  States,  it  is  stated 
that  the  Greek  colony  of  Lowell  is  probably  the  most  ex- 
clusive and  distinctive  Greek  settlement,  of  any  consider- 
able size,  in  the  United  States.  In  1912,  there  were  more 
Greeks  at  work  in  the  factories  of  Lowell  than  in  any  other 
city  in  the  country.  The  first  arrivals  of  this  people  were 
unwelcome  as  their  habits  and  customs  were  wholly  un- 
familiar to  their  fellow-workers.  Their  standard  of  living 
also  was  lower  than  anything  hitherto  existent  among  the 
mill  population.  As  operatives,  they  were  confined  largely 
to  two  mills,  the  Lawrence  and  Tremont  and  Suffolk  Corpo- 
rations. This  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  first  Greeks  were 
employed  there  and  those  who  followed  naturally  applied 
at  the  places  where  they  had  friends.  Cobum  says  that  at 
night  when  the  operatives  poured  out  of  the  mills,  “ the 
poor  scared  Greeks  would  gather  twenty  or  so  together,  take 
the  middle  of  the  street,  and  in  close  formation  rush  to  their 
lodgings,  not  daring  to  stir  abroad  until  morning.”  In 
time,  however,  they  learned  to  adapt  themselves.  They 
were  slow  to  fraternize  with  the  other  people  and  segre- 
gated themselves  in  a region  close  to  the  mills. 

About  1890,  Jewish  immigrants  appeared  in  Lowell. 


72 


For  a year  or  so  previous,  mill  officials  had  been  in  receipt 
of  letters  from  foreign  agencies  in  regard  to  work  for  Rus- 
sian Jews  driven  from  home  by  persecution.  The  few  who 
were  already  in  the  mills  were  regarded  with  antagonism, 
but,  despite  active  opposition,  many  Jews  sought  employ- 
ment here. 

Western  Asia  later  furnished  a considerable  number  of 
peoples  from  Armenia  and  Syria,  while  later  still  the  peo- 
ples of  Poland  came  in  considerable  numbers. 

POPULATION  OF  LOWELL  IN  1920 


Native  white  of  native  parentage 

24,676 

Native  white  of  foreign  or  mixed  parentage 

49,793 

Foreign  born  white  — English 

3,614 

Irish 

7,453 

French  (and  other)  Canadian 

13,782 

Scandinavian 

629 

Portugese  (Includes  Atlantic  Indians) 

2,068 

Greeks 

3,733 

Poland 

2,298 

All  others 

4,713 

Total  population 

112,759 

Nationality  Distribution  in  a Representative  Cotton  Mill  in  Lowell 


Nationality  Years 


1901 

1914 

1917 

1920 

1922 

American  per 

cent 

10.94 

21.17 

25.64 

37.68 

38.37 

English 

66 

2.85 

5.53 

4.77 

3.89 

4.11 

French 

66 

66 

19.92 

10.49 

12.20 

12.11 

12.51 

German 

66 

66 

.55 

.31 

.29 

.08 

.11 

Greek 

66 

66 

7.53 

10.08 

10.77 

5.50 

4.89 

Irish 

66 

44 

45.57 

13.06 

11.15 

9.28 

9.00 

Polish 

66 

66 

9.15 

25.16 

22.16 

17.30 

18.25 

Portuguese 

66 

44 

1.96 

5.26 

6.48 

6.92 

7.62 

Russian 

66 

44 

1.24 

1.26 

1.08 

All  other 

66 

44 

i .53 

8.94 

5.30 

5.98 

4.06 

Other  peoples  represented  — Italian,  Jewish,  Armenian,  Spanish,  Egyp- 
tian, Belgian,  Bulgarian,  Arabian,  Lithuanian,  Hungarian  and  Finnish. 
Many  of  the  “ Americans  ” in  the  above  tabulation  were  foreign-born. 
This  mill  makes  a feature  of  Americanization  and  naturalization  classes. 


73 


Chapter  XII 


WELFARE  WORK 

The  Bureau  of  Labor  defines  welfare  as  “Anything  for 
the  comfort  and  improvement,  intellectual  or  social,  of  the 
employes,  over  and  above  wages  paid,  which  is  not  a neces- 
sity of  the  industry  nor  required  by  law.” 

Welfare  work  as  it  is  conducted  in  the  United  States 
today  had  its  beginning  in  the  cotton  mills  of  Lowell,  when 
the  corporations  supervised  the  living  conditions  of  the 
operatives  and  supplied  them  with  homes  beyond  the 
standards  of  the  time,  in  order  that  they  might  attract  a 
desirable  class  of  labor.  This  endeavor  to  put  into  prac- 
tice a system  of  industrial  betterment,  at  that  time  unique, 
was  generally  carried  out  in  other  mill  towns  in  New  Eng- 
land until  the  incoming  of  foreigners.  On  account  of  their 
difference  from  the  native  New  Englanders,  in  religion, 
customs,  etc.,  these  aliens  chose  to  live  in  communities  of 
their  own.  Their  standards  were  lower.  They  were  paid 
higher  wages  and  the  corporations  exercised  no  supervision 
over  their  lives.  Thus,  for  a time,  practically  nothing  was 
done  for  the  improvement  of  the  employes.  There  was  no 
welfare  work,  so  to  speak.  During  the  past  few  years, 
however,  a new  movement  has  begun  with  the  particular 
design  of  improving  social  and  working  conditions  and  an 
effort  has  been  made  to  collect  information  regarding  speci- 
fic measures  and  their  results. 

The  Bureau  of  Labor  made  one  such  study  in  1917, 
including  in  the  number  of  those  visited  about  sixty  textile 
plants,  all  of  which  conducted  welfare  work  of  one  sort  or 
another.  Of  these  sixty  mills,  twenty-one  reported  definite- 
ly that  an  improvement  upon  the  time  lost  and  in  the  sta- 
bility of  the  force  had  been  noted.  These  reports,  of  course, 
were  more  or  less  in  the  nature  of  opinions.  It  has  been 
proved,  however,  that  a considerable  addition  to  the  cost 


74 


of  production  is  made  by  absenteeism  and  labor  turnover, 
and  if  these  can  be  reduced,  by  scientific  management  or 
by  the  introduction  of  welfare  features,  or  both,  just  to 
that  extent  can  the  value  of  so-called  welfare  work  be 
measured. 

A summary  of  the  experience  of  leading  American 
establishments  with  rest  periods,  was  given  in  a report  pre- 
pared by  the  National  Industrial  Conference  Board,  in 
1919.  The  data  was  assembled  with  a view  to  giving  some 
idea  as  to  the  extent  to  which  recesses  in  the  day’s  work 
have  been  practised  in  this  country,  as  well  as  to  deter- 
mine, in  a sense,  how  far  such  pauses  are  desirable  from 
the  standpoint  of  health  and  of  production. 

The  Board  points  out  that  the  records  of  time  study 
experts  and  the  observations  of  experienced  employers 
reporting  for  the  investigation  tend  to  show  that  rest 
periods  have  frequently  contributed  to  increased  produc- 
tion. The  prevailing  practice  in  planning  rest  periods 
among  the  establishments  cited  was  to  provide  one  in  the 
forenoon  and  one  in  the  afternoon,  each  of  them  about  ten 
minutes  long.  Of  course,  as  was  pointed  out  in  the  report, 
rest  periods  are  not  necessary  in  occupations  where  pauses 
are  in  the  nature  of  the  work.  This  would  particularly 
apply  to  the  varied  processes  in  a cotton  mill,  where  the 
machine  operations  require  attention  only  when  something 
is  wrong. 

These  rest  periods  in  a cotton  mill  may  run  somewhat 
as  follows: 


Incidentally  this  reveals  one  of  the  fallacies  that  sur- 
round the  limitation  of  working  hours  by  general  legisla- 


Twisting 

Weaving 

Carding 

Spinning 

Warping 


10-20% 

10-20% 

20-40% 

20-50% 

30-50% 


75 


tion  which  covers  all  industries.  If  the  intent  of  such  a 
law  is  to  prevent  undue  fatigue  it  might  very  easily  fail  to 
attain  its  purpose  in  certain  strenuous  industries  while 
unnecessarily  limiting  the  earning  power  of  workers  in 
such  industries  as  cotton  manufacturing,  where  the  free 
time  is  obviously  so  great  and  the  work  at  no  time  severe. 

It  is  generally  acknowledged  that  New  England  cotton 
manufacturers  have  been  pioneers  as  far  as  this  country  is 
concerned,  in  recognizing  the  value  in  dollars  and  cents  of 
proper  working  conditions  for  operatives.  Francis  Cabot 
Lowell  lived  before  the  era  of  commercialism,  but,  even 
then,  he  saw  plainly  that  in  order  to  operate  the  mills  he 
must  have  help,  and  to  secure  the  only  help  available  at 
that  time  he  must  offer  proper  inducements.  An  ample 
wage  was  not  sufficient  for  the  independent  native  New 
Englanders, — they  had  to  be  assured  of  proper  home  and 
working  conditions,  all  of  which  were  given  them  in  the 
splendid  functioning  of  the  “ Lowell  Factory  System, al- 
ready outlined  in  these  pages.  As  someone  has  said,  it 
was  a money-making  humaneness,  and  it  was  justified  by 
the  results  obtained. 

Mill  managements,  especially  in  later  years,  have  often 
been  severely  criticised  for  what  has  been  assumed  to  be 
their  indifference  to  the  welfare  of  the  operatives.  Never- 
theless it  is  true  that  no  great  industrial  enterprise  reveals 
so  consistent  an  interest  over  so  long  a period  as  is  to  be 
found  in  New  England  mills. 

It  was  in  the  New  England  cotton  mills  that  proper  mill 
heating  was  first  introduced.  As  cotton  manufacture  large- 
ly rests  on  the  nimbleness  of  the  operatives’  fingers,  it  clear- 
ly paid  to  warm  the  mills.  Pure  air,  also,  by  means  of 
proper  ventilation,  was  recognized  as  important  in  influenc- 
ing the  production  of  the  operatives. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  19th  century  hospitals  were  few; 
there  is  record  of  but  three  in  all  New  England.  From  the 
beginning  of  the  mills  in  Lowell,  however,  it  was  required 


76 


that  each  tenement  house  should  keep  one  room  unoccupied 
for  use  in  case  of  illness,  while  suitable  medical  attendance 
was  always  quickly  rendered.  The  mill  corporations 
founded  a hospital  in  1841;  the  first  one  in  the  country, 
and  probably  in  the  world,  to  be  established  by  an  indus- 
try. It  is  still  in  use,  but  greatly  enlarged. 

The  first  brick  sidewalk  in  Lowell  was  in  front  of  the 
boarding  houses  and  across  the  yards  to  the  mills  in  order 
that  the  operatives  might  avoid  wetting  their  feet. 

Woodbury  states  that  running  water  was  furnished 
throughout  the  mills  and  in  the  factory  tenements  in  ad- 
vance of  any  water  works  in  New  England. 

The  first  use  of  steam  heat  was  in  the  cotton  mills,  while 
the  first  sewerage  system  in  New  England  was  installed 
when  the  Lowell  mills  provided  sewers  to  carry  away  the 
waste  water  from  the  bleacheries  and  dye  houses. 

The  early  mills  were  lighted  by  sperm  oil,  and  later  by 
kerosene,  but  in  advance  of  town  gas  works  the  cotton  mill 
corporations  put  in  their  own  plants.  The  first  large  de- 
mand for  electricity  came  from  the  textile  mills. 

These  few  instances  serve  to  show  that  the  New  England 
cotton  manufacturers,  including  those  in  Lowell,  were  the 
first  to  support  those  protective  and  sanitary  measures,  the 
application  of  which  not  only  maintained  the  morale  and 
health  of  the  workers,  but  proved  to  be  of  a sound  financial 
value.  Their  methods  forecasted  the  welfare  work  of  to- 
day; the  principle  upon  which  they  were  built, — that  of 
the  dividend-paying  qualities  of  humanitarianism  — re- 
mains unchanged. 

The  early  corporations  found  the  immigrant  hordes  an 
apparently  unsurmountable  barrier  to  an  ideal  community 
life.  Present  day  employers  recognize  a challenge  and  a 
problem  which  must  be  met  and  solved  for  the  good  of  the 
industrial  community. 

The  great  number  of  immigrants  coming  to  the  United 
States  have  been  between  the  ages  of  sixteen  and  twenty- 


77 


five  — past  the  age  of  compulsory  school  attendance. 

The  duty  and  opportunity  of  the  government  and  of  the 
community  is,  first,  to  protect  the  immigrants  against  fraud 
and  exploitation,  second,  to  give  them  an  opportunity  to 
learn  the  English  language  and  to  secure  a working  knowl- 
edge of  our  laws  and  institutions,  and  third  to  provide 
proper  working  conditions. 

What  Lowell  is  doing  is  indicated  in  the  following  ac- 
count of  Welfare  Work  as  it  is  Conducted  Today  in  a Rep- 
resentative Lowell  Mill. 

Americanization  Classes — Course  of  three  years.  At 
graduating,  certificates  of  proficiency  in  English  and  civics 
are  given.  According  to  nationality  distribution  in  this 
mill,  almost  40  per  cent  of  workers  are  Americans,  largely 
naturalized. 

Women’s  Social  and  Educational  Club — Has  many 
activities,  athletics,  dramatics,  domestic  science,  etc. 

Women’s  Industrial  Club — Gave  a Christmas  tree  to 
1000  children. 

A newspaper  article  says  in  part,  that  work  done  at  this 
mill  is  varied.  A perfect  network  of  welfare  is  going  on. 
At  the  very  bottom  is  the  “ First  Aid  ” Department,  where 
two  nurses  are  constantly  employed,  one  to  deal  with  ac- 
cidents, and  the  other  to  go  to  the  homes  of  the  employes. 
This  latter  nurse  has  been  of  special  benefit  in  maternity 
cases,  and  has  given  to  mothers  and  prospective  mothers 
valuable  information  and  care. 

A cafeteria  lunch  room  within  the  mill  is  managed  by 
the  employes,  the  corporation  supplying  the  room  and  the 
employes  purchasing  the  food.  Prices  are  very  low  and 
the  food  is  good.  The  room  is  large  and  airy,  with  a good 
dancing  floor,  flowers  are  blooming  in  the  windows,  and 
groups  of  women  with  fancy-work  often  gather  about  the 
tables,  all  appearing  very  jolly  and  happy.  Adjoining  this 
lunchroom,  which  is  also  used  for  dancing,  is  a recreation 
room  where  employes  may  rest  or  play.  One  of  the  oper- 


78 


atives  has  been  in  the  mill  thirty-one  years,  and  he,  with 
two  other  men,  who  had  seen  long  service,  declared  that 
he  could  not  be  “ chased  away.” 

The  overseers  and  second  hands  of  the  mill,  about  sev- 
enty-five in  all,  are  sponsors  for  what  is  known  as  the  Social 
and  Educational  Club.  These  sponsors  look  after  the  other 
organizations  in  the  mill.  Any  needs  are  communicated 
to  the  S and  E Club  and  they  take  care  of  them.  The 
women’s  club  elect  their  own  officers,  have  dances  and  other 
social  gatherings  and  have  had  several  banquets  at  which 
noted  speakers  have  appeared.  Sports  are  carried  on  un- 
der the  sponsorship  of  the  mill.  Boxing  matches  are  held 
in  a specially  fitted  arena  two  or  three  times  a month  in 
the  winter  season.  A baseball  team,  a soccer  football  team 
and  a league  of  bowlers  with  nine  teams  are  organized  in 
connection  with  the  athletic  activities. 

A department  of  cooking  and  home  economics  has  been 
in  progress  at  the  mills  for  several  years.  Dressmaking 
is  taught  in  the  classes,  and  exhibitions  of  the  work  are 
held.  In  connection  with  these  classes,  home  nursing  and 
hygiene  are  taught  by  the  two  nurses  of  the  staff. 

There  is  a naturalization  class,  both  for  men  and  women. 

In  the  Americanization  classes,  oral  English,  French, 
mathematics,  history  and  civil  government  are  taught. 
Of  a graduation  exercise  the  press  stated,  “ To  say  that 
their  work  was  a revelation  is  putting  it  mildly.  Poetic 
recitations,  analytic  papers  dealing  with  the  value  of  Amer- 
icanization schools,  historic  sketches  of  the  mills,  tracing 
in  an  admirable  manner  the  evolution  of  mechanical  appli- 
ances and  labor  conditions,  all  went  to  prove  conclusively 
the  remarkable  progress  possible  even  under  a limited 
schedule  if  the  school  be  well  organized.” 

As  an  instance  of  the  effectiveness  of  welfare  work 
among  the  operatives  in  a certain  mill,  the  following  is 
related  to  show  how  work  is  done.  A man  and  his  wife, 
both  workers  in  the  mill,  became  ill.  Upon  investigation 


79 


it  was  discovered  that  they  were  in  rather  a bad  way.  The 
stove  was  broken, — a mechanic  was  sent  from  the  mill  to 
repair  it.  The  furniture  needed  repairs, — a carpenter 
mended  it.  More  bedding  was  needed, — it  was  supplied 
from  the  mill.  Whatever  was  necessary  in  order  to  re- 
lieve conditions  was  done  in  the  most  logical  and  effective 
way,  and  as  a neighborly  service. 

These  are  some  of  the  activities  in  a representative  mill 
in  Lowell.  Many  other  mills  in  Lowell  and  elsewhere  are 
doing  this  sort  of  community  work.  These  pages  afford  no 
proper  place  for  an  extended  discussion  but  it  would  cer- 
tainly astonish  many  people  who  are  prone  to  gather 
“ their  facts  ” from  more  or  less  prejudiced  sources,  to 
know  that  mill  managements  generally  are  interested  in 
the  social,  as  well  as  the  industrial,  side  of  the  lives  of  the 
operatives. 

That  medical  service  is  an  integral  part  of  welfare  work 
is  rapidly  becoming  recognized  by  employers.  Moreover, 
with  many  of  them  it  has  been  a matter  of  experience  that 
with  preventative  medical  work  and  an  efficient  health 
service,  production  has  been  increased  and  there  has  been 
a considerable  reduction  in  labor  turnover.  Aside  from 
the  humanitarian  principle  involved,  therefore,  and  viewed 
purely  as  a matter  of  business,  the  supervision  of  the  health 
of  workers  produces  results  almost  as  tangible  as  those 
from  an  investment  in  machinery  or  any  other  equipment. 

In  the  summer  of  1920,  the  National  Industrial  Con- 
ference Board  made  a study  of  ninety  New  England  plants, 
in  order  to  determine  the  extent  to  which  health  supervi- 
sion of  employes  was  being  practised.  Twenty-three  of 
these  plants  were  textile  mills,  with  over  80,000  employes. 
Among  them,  there  were  9 physicians  employed  full  time, 
14  part  time  and  4 on  call.  In  all,  53  nurses  were  em- 
ployed. In  addition  to  the  nurses,  there  were  9 dispensary 
clerks  and  4 so-called  “ First  Aiders.”  Aside  from  per- 
sonnel, the  service  generally  consisted  of,  first,  suitable  and 


80 


convenient  quarters,  located,  in  most  cases,  on  the  first 
floor;  second,  equipment  such  as  instrument  and  drug  cab- 
inets, dressing  table,  etc.;  and,  third,  drugs  and  supplies. 

If  such  a thing  were  possible,  it  would  be  of  extreme 
interest  to  know  how  much  weight  is  generally  given  to  the 
benefits  derived  from  welfare  activities  in  the  event  of 
labor  disturbances.  Do  the  operatives  strike  less  often 
and  return  sooner  in  a mill  where  an  active  personal  in- 
terest has  been  taken  in  them?  In  the  case  of  the  mill 
previously  cited,  where  the  workers  stated  only  a few  days 
before  a strike  occurred  that  they  could  not  be  “ chased 
away,”  was  there  less  disorganization  than  in  mills  in  the 
same  neighborhood  where  welfare  work  was  not  a feature? 
The  only  safe  conclusion,  in  all  probability,  is  the  one 
pointed  out  by  the  Bureau  of  Labor  when  it  states  that 
“ the  mistake  must  not  be  made  of  supposing  that  welfare 
work  will  prevent  discord  when  even  cordial  relations,  the 
best  of  working  conditions,  and  good  wages  have  failed  in 
this  at  times.”  Nevertheless,  though  few  employers  would 
make  any  very  definite  statement  on  this  subject,  the  indi- 
cations are  that,  other  things  being  equal,  welfare  work 
reduces  the  labor  turnover,  lowers  the  sickness  and  acci- 
dent rate,  and  is  conducive  to  a better  feeling  on  the  part 
of  the  working  force. 


81 


Chapter  XIII 
HOURS  OF  WORK 

In  the  early  years  the  working  hours  in  the  mills  were 
very  long  — from  five  o’clock  in  the  morning  to  seven  in 
the  evening,  with  a half  hour  each  for  breakfast  and  for 
dinner.  This  meant  thirteen  hours  a day  or  seventy-eight 
hours  a week  of  six  days.  However,  those  who  relate  the 
history  of  those  days,  among  them  several  who  at  one  time 
were  mill  girls,  are  careful  to  state  that  although  the  hours 
of  work  seemed  long,  yet  the  operatives  were  not  over- 
worked. They  were  obliged  to  tend  no  more  looms  and 
frames  than  they  could  easily  take  care  of,  and  the  super- 
vision was  not  constant.  Time  to  sit  down  and  rest  was 
afforded;  note  was  made  by  one  writer  that  it  was  no  un- 
common practice  for  a girl  to  sit  idle  at  least  fifteen 
minutes  at  a time.  The  youngest  girls,  called  “ doffers  ” 
because  they  doffed  or  took  off  the  full  bobbins  and  re- 
placed them  with  empty  ones,  worked  only  a quarter  of 
an  hour  at  a time,  but  they  had  to  remain  on  duty  the  full 
thirteen  or  fourteen  hours  a day.  It  was  not  until  1842 
that  hours  of  labor  for  children  under  twelve  were  re- 
stricted to  ten  a day.  There  was  some  night  work  in  the 
early  years,  for  which  the  operatives  were  paid  in  full. 

The  topic  of  liveliest  interest  among  working  classes 
in  the  United  States  always  has  been  the  normal  working 
day,  and,  in  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry,  the  strug- 
gle for  a shorter  work-week  has  been  in  existence  prac- 
tically as  long  as  the  industry  itself.  Within  three  years 
after  the  opening  of  the  first  mill  in  Lowell  the  Senate  of 
Massachusetts  was  investigating  the  question  of  child  labor, 
although  nothing  was  done.  However,  this  began  the  agi- 
tation, which,  unorganized  at  the  start,  has  since  been  the 
cause  of  more  controversy  than  all  other  subjects  com- 
bined in  the  history  of  the  industry. 

The  first  mention  of  any  organized  effort  to  obtain  short- 


82 


er  hours  is  in  the  minutes  of  a meeting  to  form  a general 
trades  union,  held  in  Boston  in  1834,  in  the  Common  Coun- 
cil Room.  The  main  subject  considered  was  a reduction 
of  the  hours  of  labor,  but  the  employment  of  women  and 
children  in  manufacturing  establishments  was  also  dis- 
cussed. Nothing  was  achieved,  however,  and,  the  follow- 
ing year,  when  the  union,  formed  at  this  first  meeting, 
desired  to  meet  again  to  discuss  the  shorter  hours  move- 
ment, the  use  of  a hall  was  refused  by  the  authorities  of 
Boston.  No  further  mention  of  the  union  can  be  found. 

In  1836,  Protectionists  were  then  endeavoring  to  per- 
suade the  American  people  that  manufactures  ought  to 
be  developed,  even  at  the  expense  of  public  aid.  John 
Quincy  Adams  had  declared  in  a report  on  manufactures 
that  cotton  mills  were  “ the  principalities  of  the  destitute, 
the  places  of  the  poor.”  This  led  Seth  Luther,  a me- 
chanic, to  investigate  the  condition  of  the  manufacturing 
population  of  England  and  the  United  States  in  order 
to  determine  whether  manufactures  were,  after  all,  so 
desirable  when  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of  the  labor- 
ing classes.  The  result  of  this  investigation  may  be 
found  in  detail  in  the  Documentary  History  of  the  Ameri- 
can Industrial  Society,  Volume  7,  page  132. 

Briefly,  in  his  report  Luther  stated  that  he  found  cases 
of  cruelty  to  children  and  a certain  amount  of  child  labor. 
The  work-day  was  varied  from  12  to  15  hours;  averaging 
13  hours  in  the  New  England  mills.  Other  points  of  criti- 
cism were  that  certain  regulations  made  when  the  board- 
ing houses  were  in  operation  were  considered  to  be  “ cruel 
and  oppressive,”  — to  wit,  that  the  operatives  were  taxed 
by  the  companies  for  the  support  of  religion, — in  general, 
that  the  lives  of  the  employes  were  regulated  outside  as 
well  as  inside  the  factories.  He  relates  that  windows 
were  nailed  down,  the  operatives  thereby  being  deprived 
of  fresh  air,  and  cites  a case  of  rebellion  on  the  part  of  a 
thousand  female  workers  on  account  of  tyrannical  and 
oppressive  treatment. 


83 


In  no  industry  in  the  United  States  were  the  hours  of 
work  less  than  eleven  or  twelve  a day,  until  1840,  when 
President  Van  Buren  signed  a general  order  introducing  a 
ten-hour  system  thereafter  into  the  Navy  Yard  at  Wash- 
ington. This  example  was  followed  in  other  navy  yards 
and  soon  became  somewhat  general  in  factories.  In  the 
cotton  manufacturing  industry,  however,  there  was  no 
such  reduction.  Although  the  conflict  of  workers  for 
shorter  hours  has  made  headway,  particularly  in  regard 
to  the  hours  of  labor  for  children  under  twelve,  which  by 
this  time  were  limited  to  ten  a day,  yet  for  adults,  hours 
were  practically  the  same.  Agitation,  however,  was  be- 
coming stronger.  By  1842,  the  movement  began  to  edge 
its  way  into  politics.  Piecords  of  petitions  presented  to 
the  General  Court,  headed,  “The  Ten  Hour  Representatives 
Association,”  indicate  that  some  sort  of  an  organization 
existed.  The  first  petition  to  be  presented,  in  1842,  by 
Lowell  operatives,  was  curiously  worded  “ that  the  length 
of  the  laborer’s  day  should  not  be  defined  by  law  but  be 
left  to  be  determined  by  the  power  of  the  employer  or  the 
caprice  of  labor.”  Interpreted,  this  would  mean  that  in 
case  of  an  argument  or  open  disturbance  the  law  could  not 
interfere,  and  it  was  left  employer  and  laborer  to  decide 
as  to  the  proper  work  day.  Were  such  a law  in  force  today 
it  takes  very  little  imagination  to  see  the  result. 

Notwithstanding  that  this  first  petition  produced  no  re- 
sult, it  was  followed  two  years  later  by  another,  also  with- 
out result.  This  one  did  not  include  reference  to  how  long 
operatives  should  work,  but  asked  that  changes  be  made  in 
the  charter  of  manufacturing  corporations  so  as  to  forbid 
the  running  of  machinery  more  than  ten  hours  a day. 

About  this  time,  as  a result  of  a meeting  held  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  the  New  England  Association  of  Workmen  was 
formed,  primarily  to  extend  the  shorter-hour  movement. 
During  its  brief  existence  of  three  years,  the  association 
held  frequent  meetings  and  also  established  two  periodi- 


84 


cals,  the  “ Lynn  Awl  ” and  the  “ Voice  of  Industry,”  the 
latter  published  in  Lowell.  The  meetings  of  this  associa- 
tion were  open  to  all  and  attracted  many  so-called  radicals 
of  the  day, — among  them  Wendell  Phillips  and  the  Brook 
Farm  coterie,  who,  with  the  Socialists  practically  captured 
the  organization.  This  they  fully  achieved,  in  1845,  at  a 
meeting  in  Boston,  which  was  poorly  attended  owing  to 
lack  of  notice.  Llorace  Greely  was  present  at  this  meeting, 
as  well  as  Robert  Owen,  the  father  of  American  Socialism, 
who  made  a stirring  address.  After  the  meeting,  there  is 
no  indication  that  whatever  organization  existed  busied 
itself  with  the  ten-hour  movement;  in  fact,  the  original  as- 
sociation achieved  little  beyond  the  distinction  of  being  the 
first  body  of  any  size  to  realize  the  support  to  be  gained 
from  the  combined  efforts  of  women;  in  this  case,  the  fe- 
male operatives  in  the  mills.  Whatever  impetus  was  given 
to  the  movement  during  the  association’s  lifetime  was  the 
result  of  a society  organized  by  the  factory  girls  in  Lowell 
which  reflected  the  intelligence  and  energy  attributed  to 
them  at  this  time.  Beginning  with  fifteen  in  January,  it 
grew  rapidly,  and  by  May,  the  membership  was  five  hun- 
dred, with  chapters  in  other  textile  towns.  Although  no 
tangible  result  followed,  the  interest  created  never  died  out 
and  was  an  asset  in  future  efforts. 

Regularly,  for  the  next  two  or  three  years,  the  Lowell 
operatives  joined  with  workers  from  other  mill  towns  in 
presenting  petitions  to  the  General  Court.  By  now,  they 
seemed  to  have  realized  that  a gradual  reduction  in  hours 
of  work  might  be  more  easily  gained,  so  these  later  peti- 
tions asked  for  an  eleven-hour  day,  instead  of  the  ten-hour 
day  previously  desired.  Again,  the  matter  was  referred  tc 
a committee,  which  reported  against  any  legislation. 

These  petitions  particularly  emphasized  the  injustice  of 
the  clause  in  the  “ Regulation  Paper  ” each  newly  engaged 
operative  had  to  sign.  The  objectionable  clause  stated 
that  the  operative  was  considered  engaged  for  twelve 


85 


months  and  that  those  leaving  sooner  would  not  receive  a 
regular  discharge.  Inasmuch  as  an  operative  could  not 
receive  employment  at  a mill  after  once  having  been  “ dis- 
honorably discharged,”  as  the  lack  of  an  “ honorable  dis- 
charge ” would  imply,  this  clause  was  keenly  resented, 
particularly  as  it  was  rigidly  enforced. 

During  the  time  the  petitions  were  being  presented,  some 
points  had  been  yielded  by  employers.  In  Lowell,  for  ex- 
ample, the  corporations  made  an  extension  of  time  for 
meals  to  45  minutes. 

Progress  in  the  shorter-hour  movement  was  hindered  by 
the  period  of  depression  which  existed  between  1848  and 
1850.  For  many  months,  a number  of  mills  were  idle  in 
Lowell  and  there  was  great  distress  among  the  operatives. 

In  1850,  another  petition  was  presented.  By  this  time, 
the  Workmen’s  Association  had  entirely  vanished  and  there 
is  no  record  of  another  having  taken  its  place.  This  peti- 
tion resulted  in  legislative  consideration.  A Committee 
from  the  House  and  another  from  the  Senate  were  ap- 
pointed to  look  into  the  matter.  In  their  reports,  both 
refused  to  recommend  action  on  a ten-hour  day,  stating  to 
the  operatives  that  the  inevitable  effect  of  a ten-hour  law 
in  Massachusetts,  before  similar  legislation  was  enacted  in 
neighboring  states,  would  be  “ to  close  the  gate  of  every 
mill  in  the  state.”  They  also  warned  that  a reduction  in 
wages  would  follow. 

The  first  real  contest  for  shorter  hours  began  after  the 
resumption  of  business  following  the  hard  times  in  the  late 
forties.  In  1850,  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  of  Lowell,  made  a 
campaign  for  the  Legislature  on  the  issue  of  a ten-hour 
day.  The  mills  posted  notices  to  the  effect  that  any  man 
who  voted  for  Butler  would  be  discharged,  thus  giving  him 
the  very  chance  he  desired, — that  of  a spectacular  appeal 
to  the  people.  At  an  indignation  meeting  held  by  the  oper- 
atives, he  made  a speech  which  counted  largely  in  electing 
him,  and,  although  a ten-hour  law  was  not  secured  by  him, 
it  was  not  long  thereafter  that  the  one  establishing  an 


86 


eleven-hour  day  was  put  into  effect,  whether  by  Butler’s 
efforts  or  not  is  open  to  question. 

A year  later,  another  candidate,  one  Farnsworth,  ran  for 
the  Legislature  on  the  ten-hour  issue.  He,  too,  was  elected 
but  failed  to  secure  the  passage  of  his  bill. 

The  next  definite  move,  after  the  petition  of  1850,  was 
an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  pass  a bill  providing  that  chil- 
dren under  fifteen  should  work  not  more  than  ten  hours 
a day.  For  several  years  at  very  frequent  intervals,  how- 
ever, ten-hour  meetings  were  held,  these  proving  to  be  the 
best  method  of  keeping  interest  in  the  movement  actively 
before  the  people.  At  a gathering  in  Lowell,  in  October, 
1853,  two  or  three  thousand  people  were  present,  the  oper- 
atives in  this  town  and  in  Lawrence  being  the  most  active  in 
the  cause.  The  reason  for  this  perhaps  lay  in  the  fact 
that  here  still  remained  the  native  American  element  mak- 
ing a last  fight  for  reformed  conditions  before  giving  place 
to  foreign  labor. 

In  1853,  a half -victory  was  secured  in  that  hours  were 
reduced  to  eleven  per  day.  The  ten-hour  agitation,  how- 
ever, was  continued  and,  in  1855,  a bill  received  consider- 
ation in  the  House,  the  committee  to  which  it  was  referred 
reporting  unanimously  in  favor  of  the  proposed  legisla- 
tion. The  next  year  it  reached  the  Senate,  which  also 
approved  the  measure. 

Right  here,  it  is  of  interest  to  note  the  arguments  for  and 
against  a ten-hour  day,  which  were  most  commonly  ad- 
vanced by  operatives  and  employers.  The  latter  maintained 
that  the  proposed  shortening  of  the  work-day  would  reduce 
the  output  of  the  mills  and  would  lead  to  a corresponding 
reduction  in  wages.  To  this,  the  operatives  answered  that 
the  ten-hour  system  had  been  installed  in  many  other  indus- 
tries in  Massachusetts  and  wages  had  never  been  reduced. 
On  the  contrary,  because  of  an  over-production  of  goods  in 
the  cotton  mills  of  Fall  River,  in  1848,  a reduction  in  wages 
was  contemplated  by  the  corporations.  A rumor  of  this 


87 


reached  the  workers  and  they  struck  at  once  in  protest 
against  the  proposed  cut. 

The  employers  further  maintained  that,  if  the  ten-hour 
system  had  been  successfully  installed  in  other  industries, 
it  was  because  conditions  in  cotton  mills  were  different, — 
that,  in  them,  the  output  depended  almost  wholly  on  the 
speed  at  which  the  machinery  was  run.  The  operatives’ 
answer  to  this  was  that  much  time  and  material  were  wasted 
in  stoppage  and  breakage  due  to  overtaxing  those  who  at- 
tended the  machines. 

Thus,  year  by  year,  the  struggle  for  a ten-hour  law  went 
on,  but  without  success.  Then  came  the  Civil  War,  which 
occupied  the  attention  of  the  people  and  little  was  done  in 
the  way  of  labor  legislation  of  any  kind.  For  at  least 
five  years  the  ten-hour  measure  was  disregarded.  Many 
cotton  mills  were  closed  and  the  operatives  scattered.  By 
1865,  however,  the  cotton  fields  of  the  south  were  re- 
opened to  cultivation  and  northern  mills  resumed  opera- 
tion. The  demand  for  cotton  goods  was  great,  but  there 
was  a great  scarcity  of  labor.  As  previously  noted,  it 
was  at  this  time  that  the  number  of  foreign  workers  in- 
creased rapidly  in  the  mills.  From  Lowell,  Lawrence, 
and  other  textile  towns,  agents  were  sent  to  Canada  and 
Great  Britain  to  secure  workers,  the  result  being  that  the 
native  New  England  girls,  who  had  returned  to  their 
homes  during  the  war,  never  again  entered  the  mills. 

The  new  element,  however,  immediately  revived  the 
agitation  for  shorter  hours  with  the  difference  that  they 
demanded  an  eight-hour  instead  of  a ten-hour  day.  At 
this  time,  the  work-day  was  still  eleven  hours  long,  with 
two  hours  overtime  three  evenings  each  week.  It  was 
estimated  that  one-third  of  the  overtime  workers  were 
children,  and  the  majority  of  them  under  18.  Eight-hour 
meetings  were  numerous.  Particular  mention  is  made  of 
a picnic  held  at  Beverly,  Massachusetts,  in  1865,  which 
was  attended  by  over  four  thousand  enthusiasts. 

The  following  year,  1866,  a bill  proposing  an  eight- 


88 


hour  day  in  the  textile  industry  was  debated  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts House  of  Representatives  and  finally  defeated. 
This,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  there  was  no  scarcity  of 
labor  caused  the  failure  of  the  eight-hour  movement.  An 
attempt  was  made  to  raise  a fund  of  $5,000  to  carry  it  on, 
but  met  with  no  success,  as  money  was  scarce.  By  1867, 
the  agitation  for  an  8-hour  day  had  completely  died. 

With  it  out  of  the  way,  the  ten-hour  movement  emerged 
again,  this  time  under  the  leadership  of  a Lowell  man, 
James  M.  Stone,  who  in  a short  time  was  sent  to  the  Legis- 
lature. This  made  it  necessary  that  the  work  of  organiza- 
tion and  agitation  fall  on  someone  else, — as  it  happened, 
a Lawrence  man,  and  that  city  soon  became  the  center  of 
the  movement. 

In  1867,  an  act  was  passed  which  forbade  the  employ- 
ment of  any  child  under  ten  years  of  age  in  any  manufac- 
turing or  mechanical  establishment,  and  any  child  under 
fifteen  years  of  age  unless  he  had  attended  school  at  least 
three  months  during  the  year  next  preceding  such  employ- 
ment, and  that  no  child  under  the  age  of  fifteen  years 
should  be  employed  more  than  sixty  hours  a week.  About 
this  time,  the  first  voluntary  successful  reduction  of  hours 
in  a cotton  mill  took  place  when  the  Atlantic  Mills  in  Law- 
rence instituted  a ten-hour  day.  To  meet  the  loss  in  pro- 
duction which  it  was  feared  might  ensue,  looms  were 
speeded  up  about  4 per  cent  and  other  machinery  in  like 
proportion.  Moreover,  operations  were  put  on  a piece- 
work basis.  By  these  means,  wages  were  not  essentially 
changed  by  the  shortening  of  the  day,  so  that  the  reduc- 
tion was  considered  to  have  worked  successfully. 

This  same  method  had  been  employed  some  years  earlier 
in  a Lowell  mill  but  was  widely  criticised  because  of  the 
supposed  over-working  of  the  operatives  which  it  involved. 
One  of  the  factory  girls  related  her  experience  in  a letter 
which  was  published  in  a Boston  newspaper,  in  1844,  as 
follows: — 

“ In  May,  1842,  the  last  month  before  the  reduction  of 


89 


wages,  I tended  two  looms,  running  at  the  rate  of  140  beats 
of  the  lathe  per  minute.  In  24  days  I earned  $14.52.  In 
the  next  month,  when  speed  and  prices  had  both  been  re- 
duced, I tended  4 looms,  at  a speed  of  100  and  earned  in 
24  days  $13.52.  I increased  my  earnings  every  month 
a little,  by  the  gradual  increase  of  the  speed,  as  I grew 
accustomed  to  it.  In  January,  1843,  the  speed  was  raised 
to  about  118,  and  the  price  reduced  still  lower.  I earned 
in  that  month,  in  24  days  on  3 looms,  $14.60,  and  my  work 
was  in  no  degree  harder.  The  speed  was  raised  just  as  we 
could  bear  it,  and  often,  almost  always,  at  our  own  request, 
because  with  the  increase  of  speed  our  pay  increased. 

“ In  June,  1843,  I still  tended  3 looms,  and  in  24  days 
earned  $15.40,  and  in  June,  1844,  feeling  able  to  tend  4 
looms  at  a speed  of  about  120,  I received  $16.92  for  24 
days  work. 

“ I affirm  that  I have  not  in  any  of  these,  or  other 
months,  overworked  myself.  I have  kept  gaining  in  abil- 
ity and  skill,  and  as  fast  as  I did  so  I was  allowed  to  make 
more  and  more  money,  by  the  accommodation  of  the  speed 
of  the  looms  to  my  capacity.” 

Summary  of  the  above  showing  that  speed  and  prices 


were  reduced  but  there 

was  a 25 

per  cent 

increase  : 

earnings. 

Earnings 

Date 

Looms 

Beats 

24  days 

May, 

1842 

2 

140 

$14.52 

June, 

1842 

4 

100 

13.52 

January, 

1843 

3 

118 

14.60 

June, 

1843 

3 

15.40 

June, 

1844 

4 

120 

16.92 

As  an  indication  of  the  earnestness  and  vigor  with  which 
the  movement  for  shorter  hours  was  conducted,  there  is  a 
record  of  forty-five  petitions  for  a ten-hour  law  for  women 
and  children  having  been  presented  in  the  House  and  sixty- 
five  in  the  Senate  in  one  year,  1870. 


90 


The  next  year,  twenty-six  were  presented  in  the  House 
and  twenty-two  in  the  Senate. 

In  1873,  a ten-hour  law  for  women  and  children  was 
passed  in  the  House,  but  rejected  in  the  Senate.  The  fol- 
lowing year,  a bill  was  passed  establishing  the  hours  of 
labor  at  sixty  per  week  for  women,  and  for  children  under 
18  years  of  age. 

Various  strengthening  amendments  were  added  to  this 
enactment,  until,  by  1909,  legislation  had  reduced  the 
hours  of  labor  for  women  and  children  in  manufacturing 
establishments  to  fifty-six  a week.  Two  years  later,  they 
were  reduced  to  fifty-four. 

However,  this  applied  only  to  women  and  children;  there 
were  no  legislation  on  the  hours  for  male  labor. 

The  present  law  limiting  the  work  week  to  48  hours  for 
women  and  minors  was  passed  in  1919. 

According  to  the  National  Industrial  Conference  Board’s 
report  on  hours  of  work  in  the  cotton  manufacturing  in- 
dustry, data  for  which  was  obtained  from  an  investiga- 
tion made  in  1917,  nine-tenths  of  the  employes  in  northern 
cotton  mills  at  that  time  were  working  on  schedules  of  54 
hours  a week.  This  practical  uniformity  of  the  work- 
week in  the  North,  the  Board  points  out,  is  largely  the 
result  of  state  legislation  restricting  hours  for  women.  On 
account  of  the  high  proportion  of  women  workers  this  legis- 
lation has  the  indirect  effect  of  fixing  hours  for  men  as 
well.  In  southern  cotton  mills  at  that  time  the  prevailing 
work-week  was  sixty  hours  long.  In  both  northern  and 
southern  mills,  the  Saturday  half-holiday  was  almost 
universal. 

As  to  the  effect  upon  production  which  may  have  fol- 
lowed a shortening  of  the  work-week,  the  Board  states  that 
in  the  northern  cotton  mills  included  in  the  study  there 
was  “ a substantially  proportional  decrease  in  output.  The 
fact  of  a decrease  is  indisputable.  Because  of  the  large 
number  of  influences  involved,  a precise  measurement  of 


91 


the  effect  of  any  one  is  almost  impossible,  but  the  evidence 
establishes  beyond  a doubt  that  the  reductions  in  hours 
were  largely  responsible.  In  some  instances  a part  of  the 
loss  was  promptly  made  up  by  increased  efficiency  of  work- 
ers, but  this  experience  was  not  general.” 

Furthermore,  the  investigation  developed  no  evidence  of 
an  appreciable  difference  in  health  conditions  as  a conse- 
quence of  a reduction  from  58  or  56  hours  a week  to  54 
hours. 

Later,  another  study  was  made  by  the  Board,  in  order 
to  determine  whether  in  certain  major  industries  a shorter 
schedule  of  hours  could  yield  the  same  or  practically  the 
same  production  as  a longer  schedule.  The  broad  results 
of  this  study  showed  that  in  the  northern  cotton  industry 
reductions  to  less  than  56  hours  per  week  involved  a loss 
in  output  in  more  than  90  per  cent  of  the  establishments, 
in  a majority  of  cases  this  loss  being  approximately  propor- 
tional to  the  reduction  in  time.  In  the  wool  and  silk  in- 
dustries, reductions  to  54  hours,  and  in  a number  of  in- 
stances, to  50  hours,  had  not  resulted  in  a production  loss 
in  a considerable  proportion  of  the  mills  reporting,  while, 
in  the  boot  and  shoe  industry  it  was  found  that  maximum 
production  could  be  maintained  on  a schedule  substan- 
tially less  than  54  hours  per  week. 


Hours 

after 

Output 

Estab- 

lishments 

Output 

Output 

De- 

Industry 

Reduction 

Increased 

Maintained 

creased 

Cotton 

54 

, , 

3 

49 

55 

, , 

3 

13 

Wool 

54 

6 

7 

55 

Silk 

50 

2 

7 

49 

54 

# # 

3 

8 

Boot  and  Shoe  49Lo  — 50 

. , 

5 

28 

52  — 52l/2 

1 

6 

6 

54 

. . 

6 

13 

The  above 

study  confirms  the  oft  repeated  assertion  that 

92 


the  speed  of  the  machinery  in  a cotton  mill  practically  con- 
trols production.  It  is  impossible  to  further  increase  this 
speed  so  as  to  maintain  the  same  production  in  a shorter 
work  day. 

Below  is  given  a list  of  restrictions  to  be  found  in  the 
laws  of  the  various  states  mainly  concerned  with  the  cotton 
industry.  You  will  note  that  there  are  16  laws  in  Massa- 
chusetts, five  in  Maine,  six  in  New  Hampshire,  eight  in 
Rhode  Island,  five  in  North  Carolina,  four  in  South  Caro- 
lina, and  four  in  Georgia: 

Massachusetts:  I.  License  of  Engineers  and  Firemen. 
2.  Schools  and  Employment  Certificates.  3.  Continuation 
Schools.  4.  Minimum  Wage.  5.  Weavers  Specifications. 
6.  Lockers.  7.  Medical  Chest.  8.  Workmen’s  Compen- 
sation. 9.  Hours  of  Labor,  Women  and  Minors.  10. 
Expectoration.  11.  Drinking  Water.  12.  Humidity.  13. 
Suction  Shuttles.  14.  Inspections,  Investigations,  Regula- 
tions. 15.  Prohibited  Employments  — Minors.  16. 
Guards  on  Machinery. 

Maine:  1.  License  of  Engineers  and  Firemen.  2.  Schools 
and  Employment  Certificates.  3.  Workmen’s  Compensa- 
tion. 4.  Hours  of  Labor,  Women  and  Minors.  5.  Pro- 
hibited Employments  — Minors. 

New  Hampshire:  1.  Schools  and  Employment  Certifi- 
cates. 2.  Medical  Chest.  3.  Workmen’s  Compensation. 
4.  Hours  of  Labor,  Women  and  Minors.  5.  Prohibited 
Employments  — Minors.  6.  Guards  on  Machinery. 
Rhode  Island:  1.  Schools  and  Employment  Certificates. 
2.  Workmen’s  Compensation.  3.  Hours  of  Labor, 
Women  and  Minors.  4.  Drinking  Water.  5.  Suction 
Shuttles.  6.  Inspections,  Investigations,  Regulations.  7. 
Prohibited  Employments  — Minors.  8.  Guards  on  Ma- 
chinery. 

North  Carolina:  1.  Schools  and  Employment  Certifi- 
cates. 2.  Medical  Chest.  3.  Hours  of  Labor,  Women 


93 


and  Minors.  4.  Inspections,  Investigations,  Regulations. 
5.  Prohibited  Employments  — Minors. 

South  Carolina:  1.  Schools  and  Employment  Certifi- 
cates. 2.  Hours  of  Labor,  Women  and  Minors.  3.  In- 
spections, Investigations,  Regulations.  4.  Prohibited 
Employments  — Minors. 

Georgia:  1.  Schools  and  Employment  Certificates.  2. 
Hours  of  Labor,  Women  and  Minors.  3.  Inspections,  In- 
vestigations, Regulations.  4.  Prohibited  Employments  — 
Minors. 

Below  is  given  a list  of  the  more  important  laws  with 
references: 

Hours  of  Labor,  Women  and  Minors 

Massachusetts:  48-Hour  law,  women,  and  children  up 
to  18.  Not  more  than  9 hours  in  any  one  day.  G.  L. 
149-58. 

Maine:  54  hours,  not  more  than  9 hours  per  day  except 
to  shorten  one  day  in  the  week.  Rev.  Statutes  1916,  page 
1650,  in  account  of  referendum,  not  chapter  numbered. 
Applies  to  women,  and  children  under  16. 

New  Hampshire:  Acts  of  1917,  Chapter  196.  Women, 
and  Minors  under  18,  54  hours  weekly.  10^4  hours  daily. 
Rhode  Island:  Present  law  Acts  of  1915,  Chapter  1218. 
54  hours  weekly,  women  and  minors  under  16.  10  hours 
daily. 

North  Carolina:  60-hour  week  for  women  and  minors. 
No  more  than  11  hours  in  any  one  day.  Cons,  laws  1919  - 

6554. 

South  Carolina:  Acts  of  1922  - 567.  55  hours  per  week 
in  cotton  and  woolen  mills.  10  hours  daily. 

Georgia:  Acts  of  1911,  page  65.  60  hours.  Not  more 
than  10  hours  daily. 


94 


Schools  and  Employment  Certificates 

Massachusetts:  Up  to  14  child  must  go  to  school.  From 
14  to  16  until  equal  to  sixth  grade.  Illiterates,  evening 
school,  16-21.  General  laws  76,  1-2-3. 

Maine:  Up  to  15  child  must  go  to  school.  From  15  to 
17  if  illiterate.  Revised  Statutes,  16-66. 

New  Hampshire:  Acts  1919,  Chapter  84.  Up  to  14, 
and  up  to  16  if  equivalent  of  elementary  schools  is  not 
reached. 

Rhode  Island:  Present  law,  Acts  1917,  Chapter  1492. 
Up  to  14.  Up  to  16  unless  employed  up  to  standard  of 
first  eight  years’  schooling. 

North  Carolina:  Up  to  14.  Cons.  Laws,  Section  5758. 
South  Carolina:  Up  to  14.  Four  consecutive  months  or 
80  days.  Acts  1919,  Chapter  135.  No  child  under  14  to 
work,  Acts  1916-361. 

Georgia:  Acts  of  1916,  Page  101.  Up  to  14,  four 
months.  Acts  1914,  Page  12.  Children  under  14  not  to 
work  in  factories,  except  children  of  widowed  mothers,  or 
orphans. 

Workmen’s  Compensation 

Massachusetts:  Funeral  Expenses,  $150.  G.  L.  152, 
Acts  1922,  Chapter  368.  Two -thirds  average  weekly 
wages,  $7  - $16.  500  weeks.  $4000  maximum,  10-day 
waiting  period  in  case  of  injury.  In  case  of  death:  G.  L. 
152,  Section  31.  Acts  of  1922,  Chapter  402.  $16,  widow 
and  more  than  three  children.  $14,  widow  and  three  chil- 
dren. $12,  widow  and  two  children.  $10,  widow  and  one 
child.  Not  more  than  400  weeks. 

Maine:  Rev.  Statutes  1916,  Chapter  50,  Amended  Ch. 
238,  Acts  1919.  Disability:  two  - thirds  weekly  wages, 
$6  - $16.  $6000  maximum,  500  weeks.  7 days  waiting 
period.  Acts  1921,  222  - Section  14  and  Section  9.  In  case 


95 


of  death:  Acts  1921,  222  - Section  12.  Two  - thirds  week- 
ly wages,  $6  - $15,  300  weeks.  Not  more  than  300  weeks. 
Maximum:  $4000. 

New  Hampshire:  Acts  1911,  Chapter  163,  Section  454. 
Death,  maximum  150  times  average  weekly  wages.  Dis- 
ability, 14  days  waiting  period.  One-half  weekly  earn- 
ings, $10  weekly  maximum.  300  Weeks. 

Rhode  Island:  Chapter  831,  Pub.  Laws  of  1912.  Death, 
not  amended  since  passage,  P.  L.  1912,  831  - 11  - 6,  one- 
half  weekly  wages,  $4  - 10,  300  weeks.  Disability,  one 
week  waiting  period.  Acts  1921,  Chapter  2095  - 4.  If 
disability  over  four  weeks,  back  to  date  of  injury  one-half 
weekly  wages,  $7  - $16.  500  weeks.  $5000  maximum. 
North  Carolina:  No  law. 

South  Carolina:  No  law. 

Georgia:  No  law. 

Prohibited  Employments  — Minors 

Massachusetts:  Under  14  — No  employment  in  va- 

rious businesses  in  which  the  textiles  are  included.  14  - 16. 
Variety  of  dangerous  machinery.  Under  18  — Extra 
hazardous  employment.  G.  L.  149  — 60  - 61  - 62. 

Maine:  Under  14.  No  employment  in  textiles.  Revised 
Laws  49  - 20.  No  other  laws  as  above. 

New  Hampshire:  No  lav/s  as  above.  But  no  employ- 
ment before  14  in  textiles. 

Rhode  Island:  Same  as  New  Hampshire.  Acts  1916, 
Chapter  1378.  No  minor  under  16  to  clean  machinery  in 
motion.  G.  L.  1909,  Chapter  78  - 6. 

North  Carolina:  No  law  except  general  14  year  limit. 
South  Carolina:  Criminal  Code  427.  Children  under 
14  not  to  work  about  certain  machinery  in  motion. 
Georgia:  Acts  of  1916,  Page  101.  Up  to  14,  four 
months.  Acts  1914,  P.  Children  under  14  not  to  work  in 


96 


factories,  except  children  of  widowed  mothers,  or  or- 
phans, 12. 


Minimum  Wage 

Massachusetts:  Law  in  effect,  non  - mandatory.  General 
Laws,  151  - 1 - 15  inc. 

Maine:  No  law. 

New  Hampshire:  No  law. 

Rhode  Island:  No  law. 

North  Carolina:  No  law. 

South  Carolina:  No  law. 

Georgia:  No  law. 

Inspections,  Investigations,  Regulations 

Massachusetts:  Occupational  diseases.  G.  L.  149  - 11 

General  inspections.  G.  L.  149  - 5 
Health  and  Safety.  G.  L.  149  - 6 
Eyesight  and  Lighting.  G.  L.  149  - 
114-116 

Ventilation.  G.  L.  149  - 117. 

Dust.  G.  L.  149  - 118. 

Maine:  No  laws  equivalent  to  above. 

New  Hampshire:  No  laws  equivalent  to  above. 

Rhode  Island:  Water  closets.  Acts  1920,  Chapter  1907-8. 

Dressing  Rooms.  Same. 

Drinking  water.  G.  L.  Chapter 
78  - 16. 

Heating,  Lighting,  Sanitation, 
Safety  of  egress,  guarding  of  belt- 
ing, gears,  etc.  Same.  Section  10. 
North  Carolina:  Separate  toilets,  men,  women  and 

races.  Cons.  Laws  1919  — 6559.  Seats  for  women.  Cons. 
Laws  1919  — 6555. 

South  Carolina:  Same  as  above. 

Georgia:  Seats  for  women.  Code  3150. 


97 


Guards  on  Machinery 


Massachusetts:  Strict  Law.  G.  L.  149  — 127-128- 
131.  131  applies  to  shuttles. 

Maine:  No  law. 

New  Hampshire:  Acts  1917  — 183.  It  shall  be  the  duty 
of  every  such  employer  to  provide  such  safeguards,  safety 
devices,  — lighting  facilities,  etc.,  as  may  be  reasonably 
necessary. 

Rhode  Island:  G.  L.  1909,  Chapter  78-6.  All  belting 
and  gearing  shall  be  provided  with  proper  safeguard. 
North  Carolina:  No  law. 

South  Carolina:  No  law. 

Georgia:  No  law. 


98 


Chapter  XIV 


THE  RISE  OF  LABOR  UNIONS  — LABOR  DISTURB- 
ANCES IN  LOWELL 

Labor  organizations  were  at  first  benevolent  societies  to 
care  for  employes  in  sickness  or  financial  distress.  They 
also  acted  as  censors  of  quality  of  work,  and  of  morals. 
When  legally  incorporated  such  organizations  were  hound 
not  to  interfere  with  wages  or  hours  of  labor.  It  was  after 
the  Revolutionary  War  that  trade  unions  were  organized 
for  protection  against  employers  who  cut  wages,  and,  look- 
ing solely  to  profit,  took  unfair  advantage  of  the  employes. 

Beginning  in  the  year  1789  small  groups  of  skilled  work- 
men formed  powerful  local  organizations  to  take  part  in 
fixing  wages,  hours  of  work,  and  general  conditions  of  in- 
dustries. Being  purely  local  and  composed  of  workmen 
of  a single  industry,  there  was  no  idea  of  combined  action 
among  these  societies.  As  organization  gave  strength  to 
demands  in  regard  to  wages  and  hours,  labor  early  realized 
that  a group  of  men  on  strike  had  power  to  force  action  on 
the  part  of  the  employers.  There  had  been  a strike  in 
Philadelphia  in  1786,  the  first  one  on  record  in  the  United 
States.  In  1806,  backed  by  the  labor  organization,  the 
printers  in  Philadelphia  again  went  on  strike.  In  the  earlier 
strike  there  had  been  no  disturbance;  in  this,  those  willing 
to  work  were  beaten  back,  and  shop  windows  broken. 

When  the  labor  organization  began  to  fix  “ price  lists  ” 
or  wage  scales,  the  employer  was  notified  by  a representa- 
tive of  the  union,  a veritable  “ walking  delegate,”  who  pre- 
sented him  with  a summary  of  the  proposed  changes.  Some 
labor  unions  selected  “ tramping  committees  ” to  visit  the 
shops,  and  to  see  if  union  workmen  were  “ honest  to  the 
cause.” 

Since  these  men  were  obliged  to  give  up  all  other  work, 
it  was  considered  only  fair  that  they  should  be  paid  for 
their  services. 


99 


In  the  early  thirties  the  unions  grew  rapidly.  The  devel- 
opment of  facilities  for  correspondence  and  travel  drew 
the  various  units  together.  In  1835,  five  trades  held  na- 
tional conventions,  one  of  them  the  hand  loom  weavers. 
This  added  power  resulted  in  demands  for  increased  wages. 

The  panic  of  1837  seriously  affected  the  financial  sys- 
tem of  the  United  States.  England,  also  in  industrial  dis- 
tress, called  upon  America  to  pay  her  debt,  and  American 
credit  was  thus  shaken.  Mills  and  warehouses  were  closed, 
for  no  cloth  could  be  disposed  of.  Wages  were  cut,  but 
union  men  had  either  to  accept  the  cut  in  wages  or  lose  their 
positions.  There  was  no  question  of  strike,  so  great  was 
the  number  of  hungry,  non-union  workmen  ready  to  fill 
the  places  of  any  who  left  their  work.  The  unions,  there- 
fore, fell  to  pieces. 

In  the  late  forties  industry  revived.  Gold  was  discovered 
in  California,  with  the  resulting  rush  of  the  “ forty-niners."’ 
Prices  rose  and  the  demand  for  labor  increased.  The  labor 
unions  seized  upon  this  opportunity,  and  new,  national 
unions  of  the  specific  trades  were  founded.  Immigrants 
were  urged  to  join  the  associations.  In  1850  there  were 
thousands  of  union  men,  and  the  next  few  years  were 
marked  by  many  and  serious  strikes.  In  1857  came  a sec- 
ond panic  with  results  similar  to  those  of  the  earlier  days. 
Before  the  unions  had  had  time  to  recover  the  Civil  War 
had  begun,  and  all  labor  went  to  the  support  of  the  gov- 
ernment. 

The  war  brought  problems  and  opportunities  to  the  labor 
unions.  There  was  a demand  for  manufactured  goods. 
Prices  advanced,  and  industry  expanded  under  the  stimulus 
of  the  high  tariff.  Organized  labor  had  to  be  built  up  on 
a national  scale. 

By  the  end  of  the  war,  there  were  trade  assemblies  in 
many  cities,  cooperative  stores,  legislative  lobbies,  labor 
press,  and  thirty  powerful  national  unions  of  specific 
trades.  In  1864,  the  Industrial  Assembly  of  North  Amer- 


100 


ica,  meeting  in  Louisville,  stated  that  the  object  of  the 
organization  was  to  abolish  strikes,  and  in  their  place  to 
establish  trade  agreements  with  employers.  Two  years 
later  in  Baltimore,  the  assembly  organized  the  National  La- 
bor Union.  This  lasted  until  about  1871,  when,  having 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  political  reformers,  it  was  practi- 
cally dead. 

The  Knights  of  Labor  or  to  give  it  the  full  title,  “ The 
Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,”  grew  out  of  a group 
composed  of  tailors  of  Philadelphia  organized  as  the  Gar- 
ment Cutters’  Union.  Trade  conditions  caused  this  union 
to  lose  ground  and  they  reorganized  upon  a new  basis  under 
Uriah  H.  Stevens,  who  thus  became  the  founder  of  “ The 
Noble  Order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor.”  The  membership 
was  at  first  limited  to  tailors.  The  order  was  very  soon 
greatly  enlarged  as  to  scope  and  covered  practically  all  the 
industries. 

Its  growth  was  exceedingly  rapid.  While  no  very  accu- 
rate information  is  to  be  had  of  its  early  numbers,  the  first 
quarterly  report  shows  a membership  of  28,  while  in  1883, 
12  years  later,  the  membership  was  about  52,000.  In  three 
years,  however,  or  in  1886,  it  was  over  700,000. 

At  this  time  when  in  the  height  of  its  power  it  was 
claimed  that  it  had  a membership  of  a million  in  the  United 
States  and  300,000  or  more  in  Canada. 

Terrence  V.  Powderly  was  the  leader  during  the  period 
of  its  greatest  success  and  also  in  its  decline.  This  decline 
which  followed  soon  after  1886  caused  it  to  disappear  as 
an  industrial  factor  because  of  the  great  strength  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor. 

The  guiding  spirit  in  this  new  industrial  movement  has 
been  and  is  Samuel  Gompers,  who  has  succeeded  in  organ- 
izing what  is  undoubtedly  the  most  powerful  trade  move- 
ment the  world  has  ever  seen. 


101 


Labor  Disturbances  in  Lowell 

The  first  difficulty  to  be  recorded  occurred  in  February, 
1836.  The  strike,  or  “ turn  out,”  as  it  was  called,  was  the 
result  of  two  grievances,  namely,  a reduction  in  wages  and 
a proposal  that  the  girls  pay  the  amount  previously  con- 
tributed by  the  corporation  toward  their  board.  This  sum, 
25  cents  a week,  with  the  cut  in  wages,  made  a difference  of 
about  one  dollar  a week.  The  operatives,  who  were  very 
indignant  over  the  double  reduction,  held  meetings  and  de- 
cided to  stop  work  and  “ turn  out,”  letting  the  mills  take 
care  of  themselves.  Accordingly,  in  the  middle  of  the 
morning’s  work,  they  stopped  the  looms  and  frames  and 
left.  Harriet  Robinson  in  relating  her  experiences  as  a mill 
girl  tells  that  in  one  of  the  rooms  some  indecision  was  felt 
after  the  machinery  ceased,  and  discussion  began  anew, 
when  a little  bobbin  girl  eleven  years  old  said,  “ I’m  going 
to  turn  out  whether  anyone  else  does  or  not,”  and  marched 
out,  followed  by  all  the  others.  They  went  in  procession  to 
the  grove,  then  on  Chapel  Hill,  and  were  addressed  by  sym- 
pathizing speakers.  Their  dissatisfaction  subsided  or  ex- 
pended itself  in  this  way,  and,  though  the  managers  did  not 
accede  to  their  demands,  they  returned  to  work. 

During  the  first  fifty  years  of  Lowell’s  history  as  a textile 
center,  or  up  to  1880,  only  nine  strikes  and  lock-outs  oc- 
curred. Of  these,  one  was  successful,  the  result  of  one  was 
not  stated,  and  all  the  others  failed. 

The  most  notable  of  these  strikes  occurred  in  1875,  when 
the  Mule  Spinners’  Association  of  the  United  States  ordered 
the  mill  workers  to  walk  out  in  a few  of  the  mills,  more  to 
test  the  strength  of  the  union  than  for  any  other  given  cause. 
The  manufacturers,  however,  posted  notices  in  every  mill 
to  the  effect  that  if  the  proposed  strike  were  carried  out, 
every  mule-spinner  in  all  of  the  mills  would  be  dis- 
charged. Notwithstanding  this,  the  strike  took  place  and 
the  lock-out  of  spinners  in  mills  not  affected  followed  the 


102 


next  day  and  continued  for  six  weeks.  Some  of  the  old 
spinners  returned  voluntarily,  new  employes  were  hired 
and  ring-spinning  was  introduced.  The  employers  refused 
to  receive  the  ringleaders  of  the  strike  and  some  of  the 
others  also  lost  their  places,  as  no  new  employe  was  re- 
moved to  make  room  for  a returning  striker.  The  opera- 
tives also  signed  an  agreement  renouncing  the  union. 

In  1898  and  1899,  there  were  several  small  strikes  in 
different  mills  in  Lowell,  nearly  always  for  an  increase  in 
wages.  In  December  of  the  latter  year  an  increase  of  ten 
per  cent  was  granted  in  some  of  the  mills,  and  from  that 
time  until  February,  1903,  there  was  no  difficulty.  Then 
the  “ Textile  Council  ” demanded  another  increase  of  ten 
per  cent,  which  the  agents  in  all  the  mills  refused  because 
they  could  not  afford  to  grant  it.  A strike  was  called,  but 
the  agents  forestalled  action  by  posting  notices  that  the 
mills  would  be  closed  for  an  indefinite  period.  A month 
later  the  State  Legislature  directed  the  Board  of  Arbitration 
and  Conciliation  to  make  an  investigation.  Their  report 
approved  the  contention  of  the  manufacturers  that  they 
were  in  no  position  to  pay  a higher  wage.  After  a few  more 
weeks,  the  mills  reopened  with  no  change  in  the  wage  sched- 
ule. In  two  weeks,  about  three-fourths  of  the  old  opera- 
tives returned  and  in  less  than  a month  the  “ Textile 
Council  ” called  the  strike  off.  From  March,  when  the 
strike  was  called,  to  the  end  of  June,  when  it  was  over, 
about  15,000  operatives  were  out  of  work,  while  the  loss  of 
production  was  enormous.  George  Keenan,  the  famous 
correspondent,  stated  at  the  time  that  it  was  his  belief,  after 
inquiry,  that  about  two  thousand  organized  workers  precipi- 
tated the  strike  while  the  unorganized  were  so  little  in- 
formed that  the  first  intimation  of  trouble  came  when  they 
found  the  mill  gates  closed. 

Briefly  stated,  the  industrial  history  of  Lowell,  taken  as 
a typical  city,  up  to  1912,  included  131  strikes  and  five 
lock-outs;  11  of  the  strikes  occurred  in  the  first  sixty  years. 


103 


the  remainder  taking  place  since  1890.  Of  all  these,  only 
one,  that  of  1903  was  general,  affecting  nearly  all  of  the 
textile  mills. 

Of  these  131  strikes,  25  were  won  by  the  striking  opera- 
tives, 70  were  lost,  25  amicably  settled,  while  the  results 
for  the  remaining  11  were  not  stated. 

Of  the  25  won  by  the  strikers,  four  were  for  shorter 
hours,  five  for  an  advance  in  wages,  four  against  a reduc- 
tion in  wages,  three  for  shorter  hours  and  higher  wages, 
and  nine  for  various  other  reasons. 

Of  the  70  lost,  17  were  for  an  advance  of  wages,  18 
against  reduction  of  wages,  eight  for  shorter  hours  and 
higher  wages,  and  the  balance  for  other  reasons. 

The  record  for  the  last  decade  continues  the  history  of 
the  disturbance  of  industrial  relations.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
however,  that  during  this  period  there  seems  to  have  been 
a better  understanding  between  capital  and  labor  and  a 
growing  disposition  to  consider  more  carefully  the  actual 
facts  in  a given  case.  The  appeal  to  prejudice  on  either 
side  must  eventually  yield  to  the  considerations  involved  in 
the  common  good  of  both  capital  and  labor. 


104 


Chapter  XV 


WAGES  AND  THE  COST  OF  LIVING 

In  the  early  days  it  was  generally  understood  that  wages 
should  be  governed  by  the  value  of  a man’s  work  to  the 
community,  — in  other  words,  a payment  by  results.  Now, 
however,  the  relation  of  wages  to  work  is  largely  deter- 
mined in  the  popular  mind  by  how  much  is  required  to 
purchase  the  necessities  of  life  or  to  maintain  a certain 
standard  of  living. 

The  first  inquiry  into  the  prices  of  so-called  necessities 
or,  as  it  is  now  commonly  spoken  of,  the  cost  of  living,  was 
made  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  in  1901.  The 
results  of  this  study,  as  well  as  of  some  others  made  by 
social  organizations,  were  not  considered  to  be  very  relia- 
ble, and  nothing  upon  which  definite  conclusions  could  be 
based  was  achieved  up  to  the  time  of  the  World  War.  The 
early  studies  were  chiefly  devoted  to  finding  out  how  much 
each  wage  earner  actually  received  and  how  it  was  spent, 
not  how  much  he  should  have  received  and  how  it  should 
have  been  spent. 

It  is  a matter  of  general  knowledge  that  wages  were 
lower  in  all  industries  in  the  period  immediately  preceding 
the  Civil  War  than  they  have  been  at  any  time  since.  That 
this  was  the  case  in  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry, 
therefore  (Chart  A),  is  not  surprising.  The  most  pro- 
nounced feature  of  the  chart  lies  in  the  picture  which  it 
presents  of  the  sudden  and  abnormal  increase  in  wages  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  World  War.  From  1860  to  1914  they 
had  more  than  doubled ; at  their  greatest  height  they  had  in- 
creased sevenfold;  and,  at  the  present  time,  the  chart  shows 
that  they  are  a little  over  five  times  what  they  were  in  1860. 
With  this  increase,  however,  the  wage  earner  must  be  con- 
sidered better  off  only  to  the  extent  of  how  many  more  of 
the  necessities  of  life  he  can  buy  with  the  higher  wage.  The 
weekly  wage  in  1860  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  $4.00, 


105 


$3.92  to  be  exact.  This  checks  with  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics’  result  as  shown  in  Volume  12, 
1921,  page  322,  where  it  is  stated  that  in  the  period  of 
1842  to  1857  wages  of  textile  operatives  were  between 
four  and  five  cents  per  hour;  in  1865,  they  were  about  six 
and  one-half  cents.  On  the  basis  of  a 60-hour  week,  which 
prevailed  at  that  time,  the  weekly  rates  were  from  $2.40  to 
$3.00  from  1842  to  1857  and  $3.90  in  the  early  part  of 
1860. 

This  seems  to  be  a very  low  rate,  particularly  when  com- 
pared with  the  wages  of  today,  but  the  value  of  a dollar  lies 
only  in  what  it  will  buy,  and  if  the  principle  of  using  the 
cost  of  living  as  a basis  for  a wage  schedule  is  applied  to 
the  seemingly  low  wage  in  1860  it  is  seen  that  proportion- 
ately more  could  be  purchased  then  than  can  be  secured 
now  with  a greatly  increased  wage. 

During  the  early  days  in  the  mills  the  operatives  lived  in 
the  corporation  boarding  houses,  paying  a relatively  small 
amount  for  lodging  and  meals.  Then  it  was  possible  to  ob- 
tain these  two  main  essentials  in  a budget,  shelter  and  food, 
for  $1.25  per  week  or  about  30  per  cent  of  the  average 
wage  at  that  time.  Today  the  same  items  form  60  per  cent 
of  a budget  allowance,  or  the  amount  to  be  expended  for 
the  necessaries  of  life.  Comparisons  between  these  two 
proportions  cannot  safely  be  drawn,  however,  without  bear- 
ing in  mind  that  in  the  years  that  intervened  there  was,  of 
course,  a considerable  change  in  standards  of  living.  In 
other  words,  the  spending  today  of  more  than  one-half  of  a 
budget  allowance  for  articles  which  formerly  could  be  se- 
cured for  about  one-quarter  of  the  budget  does  not  repre- 
sent solely  an  advance  in  the  cost  of  living.  Rather  does  it 
indicate  the  tremendous  rise  in  standards  which  has  taken 
place  in  the  home  of  the  average  American  wage-earner  in 
the  last  half-century.  Life  today  in  its  complexity  de- 
mands many  more  things  than  it  did.  Now  they  are 


106 


called  necessities;  then  they  were  considered  to  be  lux- 
uries. 

If  data  were  obtainable  on  the  cost  of  living  during  the 
years  previous  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war  in  1914  it  is  more 
than  possible  that  they  would  follow  the  trend  of  wages  as 
shown  on  Chart  A,  that  is,  a steady  rise  with  intermittent 
periods  of  depression  until  the  year  1914.  At  this  time 
prices  began  to  rise  abnormally  and  in  order  that  earnings 
might  meet  these  rising  costs,  the  need  for  increase  in  wages 
began  to  be  felt.  The  principle  of  fixing  a wage  scale  that 
would  in  a measure  conform  to  the  cost  of  living  was  there- 
fore adopted  by  the  War  Labor  Board.  A typical  family 
was  defined  as  one  of  man,  wife,  and  three  children  under 
14  years  of  age.  Various  standard  budgets  were  prepared 
and,  in  principle,  it  was  only  a matter  of  arithmetic  to  take 
the  total  income  and  in  conjunction  with  a budget  prepare 
a wage  rate.  This  method,  endorsed  as  it  was  by  the  War 
Labor  Board,  was  adopted  in  many  wage  disputes  and  used 
as  a basis  for  arbitration.  However,  when  the  break  in  the 
market  came  early  in  1920  and  it  was  to  be  expected  that 
with  lower  prices  would  come  lower  wages  (using  the  cost 
of  living  as  a basis  of  the  wage  schedule),  then  the  princi- 
ple was  no  longer  advantageous  to  labor.  As  one  writer 
astutely  stated,  “ It  (the  method  of  fixing  wages  by  cost  of 
living  figures)  was  powerful  in  an  aggressive  fight  for 
higher  wages.  It  was  better  than  a free-for-all  scramble, 
that  is,  no  principle  at  all,  in  wage  adjustments  down- 
wards.” 

In  other  words,  the  principle  of  bargaining,  with  the  em- 
ployer, as  a buyer,  and  the  worker,  as  a seller  of  labor,  was 
displaced  by  the  cost  of  living  principle.  It  was  on  this 
latter  principle  that  the  22^  per  cent  reduction  in  Decem- 
ber, 1920,  in  textile  mills  was  made.  This,  of  course,  made 
labor  desirous  of  returning  to  the  bargaining  principle  and 
the  American  Federation  of  Labor,  to  all  appearances,  has 
rejected  the  cost  of  living  wage  entirely. 


107 


The  charts  which  are  here  presented  reveal  a picture  of 
wages  in  the  cotton  industry  which  I am  sure  will  be  a 
revelation  to  many. 

Chart  A.  Beginning  with  1860,  with  the  exception  of  a 
slight  decrease  during  the  few  years  of  the  war,  they  rose 
steadily  with  now  and  then  a reaction  until  1914  when 
wages  were  about  two  and  one-third  times  what  they  were 
in  1860.  Then  follows  the  period  of  the  World  War  and 
the  abrupt  and  abnormal  increase  of  wages  following  our 
entrance  into  the  war.  According  to  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor,  in  1920,  wages  in  the  cotton  industry 
reached  a peak  of  220.9  per  cent  above  the  1914  level  and 
after  the  reduction,  which  is  shown  by  the  curve  ending 
1922,  they  were  still  148  per  cent  above  1914. 

The  figures  given  by  the  investigations  of  this  Association 
and  the  National  Industrial  Conference  Board  show  slight- 
ly different  curves  from  1914  on.  It  is  significant  that 
now  the  Labor  Bureau  figures  are  the  highest  and  the  Con- 
ference Board  the  lowest,  while  The  National  Association 
of  Cotton  Manufacturers’  figures  occupy  a modest  place 
between  the  two. 

Chart  B.  There  has  been  a good  deal  of  discussion  in 
this  country  about  the  “ cost  of  living  wage.”  This  gained 
prominence  in  connection  with  the  decisions  of  the  Railway 
Labor  Board.  The  National  Industrial  Council  for  the 
Wool  Textile  Industry  and  Allied  Trades  in  England  in 
1919  are  now  working  on  this  plan.  In  co-operation  it  was 
agreed  to  establish  basic  wage  rates  and,  also,  that  as 
changes  in  the  cost  of  living  compared  with  1914  were 
shown  to  have  reached  a stated  figure  above  or  be- 
low the  cost  of  living,  to  increase  or  decrease  wages 
in  proportion.  This  applied  to  time  workers;  for  others, 
the  cost  of  living  wage  varied  in  proportion  so  as  to 
maintain  the  existing  proportionate  relation  of  the  cost  of 
living  wage  to  that  of  time  workers.  This  agreement  is  the 
foundation  of  the  sliding  scale  of  wages  introduced  into  the 


108 


1914  1915  1916  1917  1910  1919  1920  1921 


English  worsted  and  woolen  industries  and  which  has  been 
the  means  up  to  the  present  of  keeping  harmony  and  a con- 
tinuous working  arrangement  between  employers  and  em- 
ployed. 

This  cost  of  living  wage  scale  has  not  been  attempted  in 
the  United  States.  Chart  B,  however,  shows  what  the  result 
would  have  been  if  earnings  since  1914  had  been  increased 
at  the  same  rate  as  the  cost  of  living  increased.  The  inter- 
esting thing  is  that  the  actual  earnings  were  always  in  excess 
of  what  the  cost  of  living  wage  would  have  been  if  com- 
puted on  the  basis  of  the  cost  of  living.  It  is  also  to  be 
noted  that  the  widest  difference  between  the  two  existed 
when  earnings  reached  their  highest  point  in  1920.  This 
simply  means  that  wages  in  the  cotton  industry  since  1914 
have  always  exceeded  the  cost  of  living. 

While  the  saving  to  employers  upon  this  “ cost  of  living 
wage  ” plan  would  undoubtedly  be  great,  it  is  not  to  be  sup- 
posed that  employes  are  likely  to  become  enthusiastic  over 
the  very  general  reductions  in  wages  which  such  a plan 
would  mean  to  them. 

Chart  C.  This  chart  was  prepared  to  show  the  relation 
of  wages  in  the  cotton  industry  in  the  North  to  the  cost  of 
living.  Results  are  based  on  studies  made  by  this  Associa- 
tion in  1922.  The  percentage  increases  as  given  by  the 
National  Industrial  Conference  Board  were  used  to  deter- 
mine the  cost  of  living  and  wage  figures  for  1914. 

It  will  be  noted  that  the  cost  of  living  for  a typical  family 
of  five  was  somewhat  below  the  wage  level  in  1914  and  for 
a year  or  so  thereafter;  then  it  rose  above  it,  where  it  re- 
mains today. 

According  to  the  Census,  however,  the  average  family 
in  the  United  States  does  not  contain  five  persons,  but  4.3. 
On  that  basis,  the  cost  of  living  was  lower  than  a single 
wage  throughout  the  entire  period  covered  in  the  chart. 
Again,  the  Census  shows  that  each  wage  earner  supports, 
on  the  average,  two  and  one-half  persons.  For  them,  the 


ill 


1914  1915  1916  1911  1918  1919  1920  1921  1922 


cost  of  living  was  considerably  lower  than  a single  wage. 
A noteworthy  feature  is  that  the  cost  of  living  for  a family 
of  two  and  one-half  persons  was  lower  than  that  of  a 
single  man,  thus  corroborating  to  some  extent  the  oft-stated 
maxim  that  “ two  can  live  cheaper  than  one.” 

On  the  basis  of  each  wage  earner  supporting  two  and 
one-half  persons,  there  would  be  two  wage  earners  in  the 
typical  family  of  five.  To  be  conservative,  however,  a 
wage  rate  based  on  one  and  one-half  wage  earners  was 
assumed,  with  the  result  as  shown  in  the  chart.  This,  of 
course,  is  an  arbitrary  method,  but  when  considering  that 
large  families  are  by  no  means  exceptional  in  textile 
communities,  and  that  statistics  show  that  about  one-half 
of  the  employes  in  the  cotton  manufacturing  industry  are 
women  and  children,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  a wage  and 
a half  more  nearly  reflects  conditions  than  does  a single 
wage. 

The  wage  scales  here  presented  do  not  take  into  consid- 
eration the  very  important  changes  in  hours  of  work  which 
have  taken  place  since  1860.  Reductions  have  been  from 
60  hours  or  more  in  the  earlier  days  to  58,  56,  54  and, 
finally,  to  48  in  1919  for  Massachusetts  mills.  If  these 
figures  were  to  receive  consideration  the  wage  of  today 
based  on  the  hours  of  work  as  compared  with  the  earlier 
days  would  show  a proportionate  increase. 

Cost  of  Living 

In  1911,  the  British  Board  of  Trade  made  a study  of 
the  cost  of  living  in  American  towns,  together  with  pre- 
dominant wages  and  hours  of  labor  for  adult  males  in  the 
principal  occupations  in  Lowell  as  of  February,  1909. 
This  table,  together  with  their  conclusions,  is  given  below: 


113 


Average 

Hours 

Occupations 

Weekly  Wages 

of  Work 

Building  Trades 
Foundries  and 

$17.86 

48 

Machine  Shops 

$13.00  to 

14.41 

55 

Cotton  Industry 
Woolen  and 

8.97  to 

11.03 

58 

Worsted  Industry 
Hosiery  and 

10.04  to 

11.47 

58 

Knitted  Goods 

9.00  to 

13.10 

58 

Printing  Trades 

16.00  to 

18.30 

48 

Average  of  all 

11.40  to 

14.36 

Average  yearly  earnings  in  the  cotton  industry  $466.44 
to  $573.56. 


In  1912,  Reverend  George  F.  Kenngott  published  a 
book  entitled,  “ The  Record  of  a City.”  The  schedule 
of  the  cost  of  living  was  identical  with  that  used  by  the 
British  Board  of  Trade  in  its  investigation  in  the  cities  of 
the  United  States,  and  limits  the  inquiry  to  the  income 
and  expenditure  of  a wage-earning  family  and  to  the  de- 
tails of  household  expenditure  of  food,  etc.,  for  an  or- 
dinary week  in  1909. 

From  the  287  budgets  collected  for  the  study,  87  were 
chosen  “ at  random  ” and  compiled  in  tabular  form, 
showing  the  occupation  of  the  head  of  the  family,  total 
number  in  the  family,  the  average  weekly  income,  and 
the  expenditures  for  rent,  food  and  fuel.  Selecting  from 
this  table  the  budgets  of  those  listed  as  “ mill  operatives  ” 
and  “ cotton  mill,”  32  families  in  all,  the  following  in- 
teresting results  are  obtained: 

“(Note:  Weekly  income  includes  earnings  of  the  husband  from  principal 
occupation,  earnings  of  the  children,  if  any  are  at  work,  or  any 
other  regular  income  of  the  family.)” 


114 


Thirty-Two  Family  Budgets 
Expenditures 


Number 
in  Family 

Rent 

Food,  etc. 

Total 

Average 

Weekly 

Income 

Mill  Operatives 

7 

$1.75 

$9.58 

$11.33 

$8.00* 

5 

2.00 

10.09 

12.09 

14.00 

5 

2.00 

6.29 

8.29 

7.50* 

8 

2.00 

9.49 

11.49 

8.00* 

6 

1.75 

11.13 

12.88 

8.00* 

6 

1.88 

9.19 

11.07 

9.00* 

7 

2.25 

11.73 

13.98 

10.00* 

5 

1.75 

5.26 

7.01 

7.37 

8 

1.75 

10.42 

12.17 

9.50* 

7 

2.75 

10.42 

13.17 

17.00 

Cotton  Mill 

4 

1.50 

7.52 

9.02 

7.00* 

4 

.75 

7.40 

8.15 

7.00* 

5 

.75 

7.85 

8.60 

7.00* 

4 

1.13 

7.33 

8.46 

7.50* 

5 

2.50 

8.02 

10.52 

8.00* 

4 

1.13 

7.39 

8.52 

8.00* 

8 

1.88 

8.39 

10.27 

8.00* 

5 

1.25 

8.32 

9.57 

8.00* 

5 

2.50 

6.99 

9.49 

8.25* 

6 

2.00 

9.72 

11.72 

8.50* 

6 

2.25 

9.07 

11.32 

8.50* 

7 

2.25 

8.54 

10.79 

8.75* 

5 

.75 

8.68 

9.43 

9.00* 

7 

1.13 

9.18 

10.31 

10.00* 

7 

1.75 

9.87 

11.62 

11.00* 

8 

1.75 

11.81 

13.56 

13.00* 

6 

1.13 

12.11 

13.24 

13.50 

115 


Number 
in  Family 

Rent 

Food,  etc. 

Total 

Average 
W eekly 
Income 

5 ' 

2.25 

9.94 

12.19 

13.20 

8 

2.50 

11.10 

13.60 

16.00 

4 

1.50 

8.11 

9.61 

8.00* 

4 

1.00 

9.29 

10.29 

10.00* 

4 

2.00 

9.41 

11.41 

13.50 

Average  of  Thirty-two  Families 

6 1.74  9.05 

10.79 

9.22* 

* Total  expenditures  exceeded  weekly  income. 


An  examination  of  the  remainder  of  the  eighty-seven 
budgets  (55)  with  varied  occupations,  shows  that  in  thirty- 
one  of  them  the  total  expenditures  exceeded  the  weekly 
income. 

Average  of  Two  Hundred  and  Eighty-Seven  Families 
5.4  2.02  11.19  13.21  15.34 

The  outstanding  feature  of  the  foregoing  tabulation  is, 
of  course,  that  in  three-fourths  of  the  budgets,  the  total 
weekly  expenditures  for  rent,  food,  etc.,  exceeded  the 
total  amount  of  the  entire  family  income.  This  condition 
might  exist  occasionally  in  the  family  exchequer,  but  that 
it  should  have  existed  simultaneously  in  nearly  all  of  the 
families  contributing  budgets  for  a specified  week  must 
indicate  some  abnormal  conditions.  Furthermore,  as  it  is 
not  customary  for  merchants  to  extend  indefinite  credit 
there  must  have  been  other  sources  of  revenue  not  indi- 
cated or  the  families  might  well  be  classed  as  “ indigent.” 
The  conclusion  seems  to  be  that,  even  though  stress  is  made 
of  the  fact  that  the  budgets  were  collected  by  “ reliable  ” 
persons,  the  results  shown  and  conclusions  drawn  can  not 
be  accepted,  on  their  face,  with  any  degree  of  reliability 
as  typical  of  the  condition  of  wage  earners. 

Wonderment  at  this  astounding  system  of  finance  grows 


116 


as  further  along  in  the  study  attention  is  drawn  to  the  fact 
that  deposits  in  “ Lowell  Banks  gained  more  during  the  last 
decade  than  any  of  the  other  cities  named,  (i.e.,  Fall  River, 
Cambridge,  New  Bedford,  Lynn,  Springfield,  and  Law- 
rence) both  in  the  total  and  in  the  per  capita  savings.” 
Depositors,  of  course,  were  of  all  occupations,  but  of  the 
total  number  of  over  71,000,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  mill 
operatives,  who  form  a considerable  part  of  the  total  popu- 
lation of  Lowell,  which  at  this  time  was  slightly  more  than 
100,000,  were  well  represented  among  the  depositors.  In 
other  words,  consideration  of  all  the  facts  set  forth  in  the 
survey  would  make  it  appear  that  nearly  82  per  cent  of  the 
families  composing  a so-called  “ typical  ” group  were  able 
to  expend  more  than  they  earned  while  at  the  same  time 
others  in  the  same  occupation  put  money  in  the  bank.  It 
might  be  argued  that  the  discrepancy  between  income  and 
expenditures  had  been  the  outgrowth  of  the  increasing  cost 
of  living,  but  inasmuch  as  savings  per  capita  increased  also 
from  year  to  year,  this  could  not  have  been  the  reason  for 
the  difference. 

It  is  fair  to  suppose  that  the  studies  of  the  British  Board 
of  Trade,  being  made  when  the  idea  of  the  cost  of  living 
was  new,  and  its  methods  imperfectly  developed,  do  not 
reveal  the  conditions  as  they  really  were  and  that  Dr.  Kenn- 
gott,  with  the  combined  disadvantage  of  following  these 
figures  and  being  a local  observer,  was  unable  to  secure 
a true  perspective.  We  know  now,  and  possibly  a trained 
observer  might  have  discovered  then,  that  the  single  wage 
earner  in  a family  is  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule; 
that  a group  of  unfortunates  do  not  constitute  a true  picture 
of  the  general  condition  of  the  wage  earners  of  a com- 
munity; that  a spread  of  saving  bank  deposits  over  a num- 
ber approximating  three-fourths  of  the  population  of  the 
city  and  the  fact  that  the  average  of  these  deposits  is  larger 
than  in  similar  industrial  cities  would  be  a greater  argu- 


117 


ment  for  general  prosperity  and  satisfactory  living  condi- 
tions than  the  view  presented  in  this  book. 

In  further  confirmation  of  the  above,  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  in  December,  1921,  there  were  131,853  depositors 
in  Lowell  banks  with  deposits  of  $73,794,856,  or  an  aver- 
age of  $560,  while  on  July  1,  1922,  although  the  number 
of  depositors  had  decreased  some  6 per  cent  to  124,435, 
the  amount  on  deposit  was  2 per  cent  more  or  $75,624,997, 
and  the  average  deposit  had  increased  some  7 per  cent  or 
to  $606. 

Although  the  number  of  depositors  exceeds  the  popula- 
tion of  the  city  as  given  in  the  Census  of  1920  and  probably 
includes  a number  from  the  surrounding  towns,  it  may  also 
be  true  that  it  includes  a considerable  number  of  prosper- 
ous operatives  who  carry  both  national  and  savings  bank 
deposits. 


118 


Chapter  XVI 
CONCLUSION 

I have  considered  Lowell;  its  founders,  its  mills  and  its 
people  as  they  have  gone  about  their  accustomed  tasks, 
each  adding  his  part  to  the  building  up  of  the  city. 

As  this  is  an  industrial  story  no  account  has  been  taken 
of  the  social,  religious,  and  political  events  which  have 
accompanied  this  industrial  life.  All  these  have  been 
thoroughly  considered  and  their  value  suggested  in  the 
several  general  works  upon  the  subject  of  “ Lowell.” 
I am,  however,  adding  a brief  chronological  table  which 
is  intended  to  mark  the  milestones  of  the  city’s  progress. 
Not  all  of  them  are  here,  nor  even  some  of  those  which 
may  seem  to  be  of  the  most  importance.  In  fact  those 
recorded  are  connected  more  or  less  intimately  with  my 
story. 

I also  can  not  refrain  from  expressing  my  appreciation 
of  the  part  which  Lowell  has  played  in  the  history  of  our 
country:  the  men  who  went  to  the  Mexican  War,  the  large 
number  who  joined  the  colors  during  the  Civil  War,  those 
who  did  their  part  in  the  Spanish  War,  and  the  thousands 
who  carried  on  the  high  traditions  of  the  city  and  their 
fathers  in  the  World  War. 

I recall  the  leaders  in  social  service  and  those  who  organ- 
ized and  developed  the  charitable  institutions  of  the  city. 
The  priests  and  ministers  of  piety,  of  organizing  ability 
and  preaching  f ervor  who  “ lured  to  higher  thoughts  and 
led  the  way.”  I think,  too,  of  teachers  whose  capacity  for 
instruction  and  leadership  extended  beyond  their  students 
and  beyond  the  city. 

All  these  and  others  unknown  outside  their  small  circles 
and  yet  well  known  to  their  friends,  have  united  to  make 
the  legend  of  the  city,  “ Art  is  the  Handmaid  of  Human 
Good,”  a reality  in  the  life  story  of  “ An  Industrial  Dream 
Come  True.” 


119 


Chapter  XVII 


MILESTONES 

The  present  site  of  Lowell  was  formerly  known  as 
Wamesit  and  was  the  Indian  capital  of  the  tribes  in  north- 
eastern Massachusetts,  southern  Maine  and  New  Hamp- 
shire. It  had  a population  of  about  12,000  (Indians). 

1653  — John  Eliot  called,  “ The  Apostle  to  the  Indians,* 
preached  to  the  Indians  at  that  part  of  Chelms- 
ford now  known  as  Lowell. 

Plantation  of  Chelmsford  laid  out. 

1674  — Population  decreased  to  about  250  men  besides 
women  and  children.  (Indians) 

1726  — The  right  of  Indians  to  land  became  extinct. 

1792  — An  Act  was  passed  on  June  27th  incorporating 

Dudley  Atkins  Tyng,  William  Coombs,  Joseph 
Tyler,  Nicholas  Johnson,  Joshua  Carter  and 
such  others  as  might  join  them  into  “ a body 
politic  and  corporate  forever,  by  the  name  of 
the  Proprietors  of  Locks  and  Canals  on  Merri- 
mack River.”  The  main  object  was  to  furnish 
a means  of  passing  Pawtucket  Falls;  especially 
for  rafts  of  logs. 

1793  — Middlesex  Canal  connecting  the  Merrimack  at 

Chelmsford  with  Boston  Harbor  was  started. 
1797  — The  Canal  around  Pawtucket  Falls  was  completed 
and  the  first  boat  passed  through.  This  canal 
was  one  and  one-half  miles  long,  with  four 
locks,  to  take  care  of  a descent  of  thirty-two 
feet  and  cost  $50,000. 

1801  — First  carding  machine  in  the  country  established 
by  Moses  Hale. 

1804  — The  Middlesex  Canal  connecting  the  Merrimack 
with  Boston  Harbor  was  completed. 

1807  — The  Pentucket  Lodge  of  Masons  was  chartered. 


120 


1813  — Captain  Phineas  Whitney  and  Colonel  Josiah 
Fletcher  erected  a cotton  mill  on  the  Concord 
River  at  East  Chelmsford,  60  feet  by  50  feet, 
cost  $2,500.  This  mill  was  sold  in  1818  to 
Thomas  Hurd  who  converted  it  into  a woolen 
mill. 

Moses  Hale  built  a gun  powder  plant  on  the  Con- 
cord River. 

1820  — Thomas  M.  Clark,  employed  by  certain  Boston 
men  to  buy  the  Locks  and  Canals  Corporation. 
1821 — Thomas  M.  Clark  employed  to  buy  farms  in  East 
Chelmsford  (now  Lowell).  Total  cost  of  the 
canal  and  land  about  $100,000. 

1822  — February,  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Com- 

pany was  incorporated  and  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  first  mill.  About  $120,000  was  spent 
by  this  company  enlarging  the  canal  for  power 
purposes.  Part  of  this  expenditure  was  for  the 
dam  erected  at  Pawtucket  Falls. 

1823  — The  first  cloth  from  the  Merrimack  Manufactur- 

ing Company  was  produced. 

A large  machine  shop  (later  known  as  the  Lowell 
Machine  Shop)  was  started. 

1824  — Ezra  Worthen,  first  superintendent  of  the  Merri- 

mack Manufacturing  Company,  died. 

1825  — January,  the  Legislature  authorized  the  organ- 

ization of  the  Locks  and  Canals  Company  so 
that  they  could  purchase  the  real  estate  of  the 
Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company  and  any 
other  real  estate  up  to  the  value  of  $100,000. 
They  were  also  authorized  to  lease  or  sell  land 
and  water  power.  This  step  was  taken  to  sep- 
arate the  cotton  mill  of  the  Merrimack  Manu- 
facturing Company  from  the  land  and  power 
developments. 


121 


1825  — January,  the  Hamilton  Company  was  incorpo- 

rated. 

Middlesex  Mechanics  Association  was  formed  for 
the  assistance  and  improvement  of  the  intelli- 
gent mechanics. 

March  16,  the  first  church  was  built  by  the  Merri- 
mack Manufacturing  Company  and  consecrated 
by  Bishop  Griswold.  Rev.  Theodore  Edson 
was  the  first  Rector. 

The  first  dividend  of  the  Merrimack  Manufac- 
turing Company  (ten  per  cent)  was  paid. 

1826  — March  1,  East  Chelmsford  was  incorporated  into 

a town  called  Lowell  in  honor  of  Francis  Cabot 
Lowell. 

1828  — The  Appleton  Company  and  the  Lowell  Company 

were  incorporated. 

March  11,  the  first  bank  in  Lowell  was  established 
with  a capital  of  $100,000. 

Population  — 3,500. 

Ring  spindle  invented  by  James  Thorpe. 

1829  — Commercial  disturbances  in  Europe  and  several 

establishments  operating  with  insufficient  capi- 
tal in  this  country  were  prostrated.  Merri- 
mack Company  paid  no  dividends. 

1830  - — By  reductions  in  terms  made  by  the  proprietors  of 

the  Locks  and  Canals  Company,  Amos  and 
Abbott  Lawrence  were  induced  to  enter  the 
cotton  mill  business.  As  a consequence,  Suf- 
folk, Tremont  and  Lawrence  Companies  were 
formed. 

Construction  of  the  Western  or  Suffolk  Canal  was 
started. 

1830  — June  5,  the  Merrimack  Manufacturing  Company 
was  incorporated  to  manufacture  wool. 

The  town  hall  was  completed  at  a cost  of  $30,000. 
Population  — 6,477. 


122 


Reaction  began  against  high  tariff  policy  enforced 
since  1824.  The  cotton  industry  was,  however, 
strong  enough  to  survive. 

Boston  and  Lowell  Railroad  incorporated. 

1831 — The  Suffolk,  Tremont  and  Lawrence  Companies 
were  incorporated. 

The  great  depression  of  1827-1828,  when  so  many 
manufacturing  companies  became  bankrupt, 
was  followed  by  the  rage  for  speculation  in 
1831.  The  fortunes  of  the  young  town  suf- 
fered. Yet  through  all  this  the  growth  of 
Lowell  was,  in  the  main,  steadily  onward. 

1832  — Population  — 10,244. 

The  Western  or  Suffolk  Canal  completed  at  a 
cost  of  $70,000. 

1833  — The  Lowell  Bleachery  was  incorporated. 

1834  — Belvidere  annexed  to  Lowell. 

James  Abbot  McNeill  Whistler  was  bom. 

1835  — Boott  Company  was  incorporated. 

A public  hall  with  library  and  reading  rooms 
erected  at  a cost  of  $20,000,  most  of  which  was 
subscribed  by  the  mill. 

Two  large  grammar  schools  were  erected. 

First  railroad  in  the  United  States  was  opened. 
Trains  between  Lowell  and  Boston. 

Nashua  and  Lowell  Railroad  incorporated. 

1836  — Population  — 17,633.  In  ten  years  the  popula- 

tion was  multiplied  sixfold. 

Lowell  became  a city.  First  mayor  was  Dr.  Elisha 
Bartlett.  Second  mayor  was  Honorable  Luther 
Lawrence,  brother  to  Abbott,  Amos,  William 
and  Samuel. 

1836  — June  10,  Lowell  Dispensary  incorporated. 

First  strike  in  the  United  States  was  called  by 
3,000  factory  girls.  The  cause  and  outcome 
of  the  strike  is  not  recorded. 


123 


1836-1839  — Three  years  of  severest  depression,  yet 
spindles  rose  from  130,000  to  163,000. 

1837  — Large  market  house  built  150  feet  by  45  feet, 

at  a cost  of  $46,105.  This  building  was  three 
stories  high  and  the  second  and  third  floors  con- 
tained the  County  and  Police  Courtrooms. 

1838  — Nashua  and  Lowell  Railroad  completed. 

1839  — The  Whitney  mills  were  incorporated. 

The  C.  P.  Talbot  & Company  began  the  manufac- 
ture of  chemicals. 

A hospital  was  established. 

1840  — The  corporation  hospital  was  incorporated.  (First 

corporation  hospital  in  the  world.) 

1843  — The  Prescott  Company  was  incorporated. 

President  Tyler  visited  Lowell. 

1844  — First  street  paved. 

1845  — At  this  time  there  were  thirty-three  mills  beside 

print  works  with  an  invested  capital  of 
$12,000,000,  producing  1,459,100  yards  of 
cloth  per  week. 

1846  — Whipple’s  mills  built. 

1847  — President  Polk  visited  Lowell. 

1848  — On  September  16,  1848,  Lincoln  addressed  the 

Whigs  of  Lowell  in  the  City  Hall.  He  was  then 
a Representative  in  Congress  from  Illinois. 

1849  — Gold  was  discovered  in  California.  Many  Low- 

ell men  joined  the  rush  to  the  west  coast.  Butler 
said  that  this  was  “ the  darkest  time  ever  known 
in  Lowell.  We  have  lost  1,500  young  men, 
the  best,  most  energetic  and  enterprising  of  our 
citizens.” 

Richard  Kitson  came  from  England  and  began 
the  manufacture  of  needle  pointed  card  cloth- 
ing. 

1850  — Gas  was  first  introduced  in  the  city. 

Number  of  spindles  300,000. 


124 


1851  — Middlesex  Canal  discontinued. 

1852  — George  Wellman  completed  the  first  working 

model  of  the  self  stop  card  stripper. 

September  21,  the  corporations  reduced  the  hours 
of  labor  to  eleven  per  day. 

1853  — President  Pierce  visited  Lowell  several  times  be- 

tween 1853-1857. 

1854  — George  Wellman  offered  to  sell  to  the  corporations 

in  Lowell  the  exclusive  rights  to  his  invention 
of  the  self  stop  card  stripper  for  $3,000.  After 
consulting  together,  the  agents  of  the  various 
mills  declined  — “ stupidly,”  Cowley  says,  in- 
asmuch as  the  average  cost  of  stripping  a card 
by  hand  was  $300  yearly,  all  of  which  was 
saved  by  the  invention,  and,  furthermore,  the 
application  of  the  invention  to  each  machine 
involved  an  outlay  of  less  than  $60.  It  also 
saved  from  one-fourth  to  one-eighth  of  a cent 
per  pound  on  raw  cotton. 

1856  — Lowell  had  twelve  great  manufacturing  corpora- 
tions with  fifty  mills.  Aggregate  capital, — 
$14,000,000. 

Twice  as  many  spindles  as  in  1845  (about 
350,000). 

Total  number  of  looms  — 12,000. 

Cotton  used  yearly  — 36,000,000  pounds. 

Cotton  cloth  produced  — 80,000,000  yards. 

1859  — Cardinal  O’Connell  was  born  in  Lowell. 

1860  — Number  of  spindles  — - 400,000. 

1861-1865  — Civil  War  cut  off  supplies  of  raw  cotton  and 
two-thirds  of  the  spindles  were  idle. 

1863  — The  Lowell  Horse  (street)  Railway  incorporated. 
1867  — Lowell  felting  mills  were  incorporated. 

1869  — The  Lowell  Hosiery  Company  was  incorporated. 

1870  — The  following  manufacturing  corporations  were 

in  existence: 


125 


Lowell  Machine  Shop,  Wamesit  Steam  Mill,  Ap- 
pleton, Boott,  Hamilton,  Lawrence,  Lowell, 
Massachusetts,  Merrimack,  Middlesex,  Suffolk, 
Tremont,  Belvidere  Woolen  Mills,  Lowell 
Bleachery  and  Lowell  Hosiery  Company. 

1871  - — Fire  alarm  system  installed. 

September  25,  mill  operatives  were  allowed  one 
hour  for  the  noon  time  meal  instead  of  three- 
quarters  of  an  hour. 

1874  — February  16,  strike  by  laborers  on  Lowell  and 

Andover  Railroad. 

Kitson  Machine  Company  organized. 

1875  — Mule  spinners’  strike  ended  May  23. 

1877  — Shaw  Stocking  Company  organized  and  incorpo- 

rated. 

1878  — December  30,  Electric  lights  tried  in  Merrimack 

Mills. 

1878  — Lowell  District  Telephone  Company  began  opera- 

tions with  80  subscribers. 

1879  — August  23,  telephone  to  Boston  completed. 

1882  — The  Lowell  Electric  Light  Company  began  opera- 

tion with  subscriptions  for  sixteen  lights. 

1883  — Lamson  Cash  Railway  Company  incorporated. 
1890  — Population  — 77,696. 

1892  — Electric  car  service  established. 

1893  — Employed  in  mills  and  work  shops,  30,120. 

Textile,  24,172;  Leather,  560;  Machine,  2,838; 
Cartridges,  paper,  etc.,  2,500;  Wood,  1,050. 
1893  — Lowell  Waste  Company  incorporated. 

1895  — Lowell  Textile  School  incorporated. 

1897  — Lowell  Textile  School  opened  for  instruction. 
1907  — Waterhead  Mills  incorporated. 

1912  — Columbia  Textile  Company  incorporated. 

1913  — International  Cotton  Mills  incorporated. 

1919  — Waterside  Mills  incorporated. 


126 


I 


. i 


.7’1* 


